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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE 

Historical Foundation 

OF 

Christianity. 



ii 






THE 



Historical Foundation 



Christianity. 



A BRIEF OUTLINE OF ARGUMENT FOR THE AUTHEN- 
TICITY OF THE GOSPELS AND THE SUPER- 
NATURAL CHARACTER OF JESUS. 



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A LAYMA]'" 



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...jstand in order that I may believe ; and I 
believe in order tkjt I may understand'* — After Anselm. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

No. 1 122 Chestnut Street. 



NEW YORK: 8 & 10 BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by the 

AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



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PAGAN 
STEREOTYPERS, 



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I, PHILAD'A. *2$F^'' 




PREFACE. 



'T^HIS little book lays no special claim to 
•* originality. It is an attempt to present 
a brief outline of the historical argument 
which is unfolded at greater length in 
many valuable works now before the public. 
Such an outline, it is believed, will be use- 
ful to many who have not the opportunity 
or the inclination to undertake the perusal 
of larger works. And even to those who 
have some familiarity with the subject, 
a comprehensive summary — allowing the 
main points to be taken in at a glance — 
may be of advantage. It is a matter of 
regret that the work of abridgment neces- 
sarily deprives some of the arguments of a 



Vlll PREFACE. 

measure of their force. If too brief in some 
cases, the outline presented in these pages 
may still be serving a useful purpose if it 
awakens and directs inquiry. Fuller in- 
formation on special points may be ob- 
tained from such works as those mentioned 
in the notes. 

J. R. J. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Authenticity of the Gospels . . • 13-59 
The life of Jesus is a part of true history, being 
based upon authentic records. 

External Evidence for the Gospels. 

(1.) Ancient manuscripts. (2.) Ancient versions. 
(3.) Testimony of early writers, who had the means 
of knowing, back almost to the time of the Apos- 
tles. (4.) The Gospels acknowledged by enemies, 
and (5) supported by apocryphal literature, — and 
this so early as to carry back their date to the apos- 
tolic age. (6.) Oral tradition is trustworthy within a 
reasonable lapse of time. (7.) The Gospels were 
written too soon for the traditional account to have 
been corrupted. (8.) The testimony of antiquity is 
uniform, which would not have been the case unless 
correct. (9.) The sudden origin and rapid spread 
of Christianity must be accounted for. (10.) The 
most important facts of the Gospel history are sup- 
ported by the Epistles of Paul, and by other inde- 
pendent writings. (11.) If the Epistles of Paul are 
authentic, so is the Book of Acts. And if the Book 



X CONTENTS. 

of Acts is authentic, so is the third Gospel. (12.) 
Mark's Gospel. (13.) Matthew's Gospel. (14.) The 
condition of the text in the second century. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Internal Evidence for the Gospels. 60-75 
(1.) The Gospels vastly in advance of their age. 
(2.) Though entirely independent, they present the 
same picture. (3.) The writers record their own 
mistakes, and give simple narratives of facts. (4.) 
They supplement each other. (5.) Their minute- 
ness, and (6) their undesigned coincidences would 
have been impossible in forgeries. (7.) The picture 
of Christ's childhood is natural and perfect. (8.) 
Not a single miracle is ascribed to John. (9.) The 
common name of the Saviour the same as must 
have been preserved in the earliest oral tradition. 
(10.) The prophecies of the destruction of Jerusa- 
lem must have had an early origin in their present 
form. (11.) Hellenistic dialect and Judaic coloring. 
(12.) The authorship of the fourth Gospel. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Character of Jesus 76-90 

The most original and influential character in 
history. Those who saw and heard Jesus felt his 
moral superiority. So do we now as we read the 
record. His rejection by the Jewish rulers is easily 
accounted for. All others testified that he was an 
upright man. His character and career were the 
more remarkable by reason of the very unfavorable 



CONTENTS. XI 

outward conditions of his life. In a superstitious 
age he alone was free. The men of his nation 
were in abject slavery to the oral law, and were 
narrow in their views generally. He was an excep- 
tion. He knew more of the Scriptures than the 
wisest of the Jewish teachers. He was entirely 
original in his views of the Messiahship and in 
his methods as the Founder of a new religion. He 
was immeasurably in advance of his age. The 
results of his work are astonishing in view of his 
early death and the shortness of his public life. 
His character was harmonious and perfect. Unlike 
other reformers, he made no mistakes. He made 
and sustained the most astounding pretensions. 
The picture given us in the Gospels is its own 
vindication. Jesus manifested no solicitude as to 
the final triumph of his doctrines ; and made no 
provision for a record of his life and teachings. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Jesus was a Worker of Miracles. ..... 91-95 

These miracles were witnessed by multitudes and 
supported by the testimony alike of friends and 
foes. Their character. They cannot be separated 
from the narrative portion of the Gospels. The 
necessary inference. Jesus himself claimed to 
work miracles. And this claim must be taken in 
connection with his unimpeachable integrity. No 
other alternative. The claim of modern miracle- 
workers no objection. 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

Jesus Arose from the Dead 96-104 

He was really dead ; and that he arose is shown : 
— 1. By the testimony of those who saw him — 
sober-minded men — themselves slow to accept 
such a truth. 2. The change in the character of 
the Apostles. 3. The declaration of Jesus himself. 
4. The Christian Sabbath. 5. The difficulties of 
the contrary hypothesis. 6. The testimony of Paul. 
Conclusion. 



THE HISTORICAL FOUNDATION 

OF 

CHRISTIANITY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE GOSPELS ARE AUTHENTIC HISTORICAL 
RECORDS. 

THE Christian religion rests upon a founda- 
tion of facts. It did not originate in an 
obscure legendary age, but within the period 
of well-defined history ; in the age of Cicero 
and Caesar, of Horace and Seneca; — an age 
of literary and philosophic culture. The life 
of Caesar is an unquestionable portion of 
history. So is the life of Jesus. Beside 
other sources of information, 1 four narratives 
based upon the observation of eye-witnesses, 

1 If we had no earlier sources of information than 
the Christian writings of the second and third centu- 
ries, we would be no worse off than we are for the 
life of Alexander the Great, which comes to us only 
through sources several hundred years later than his 
own time, and yet is truly historical. 

2 13 



14 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

have transmitted the story of his life. These 
will first engage our attention. Without en- 
tering, for the present, upon the question as 
to whether they were given by inspiration, let 
us look at some of the proof by which they 
are authenticated as trustworthy histories. 

THE EXTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

1. In the libraries of Europe there are 
more than seven hundred Greek manuscript 
copies of the Gospels, in whole or in part, 
written at different times from the 4th to the 
15th century. The Gospels are therefore as 
old as the 4th century. l 

2. Between a. d. 150 and 620 the Gospels 
were translated twice into Latin, three times 
into Syriac, once each into Coptic (Lower 
Egypt), Sahidic (Upper Egypt), Gothic, Ar- 
menian, ^Ethiopic (Abyssinia) ; and these 
ten versions have remained in existence as 
separate and independent witnesses to the 
antiquity of the Gospels. 

3. Valuable information as to the date and 
authorship of the Gospels is obtained from 

1 An account of ancient manuscripts and versions 
may be seen in Smith's Diet, of the Bible, articles 
" New Testament " and " Versions ; '' in Scrivener's 
Introduction, and in critical editions of the Greek Tes- 
tament. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 15 

early writers. We will begin with those who 
lived about the year 200; to wit, Iren^eus 
bishop of Lyons (born about the year 130, 
and suffered martyrdom, according to Gregory 
of Tours, in 197); Clement of Alexandria 
(born about 150, died about 220); Tertul- 
lian of Carthage (born about 160, died about 
220) ; Origen, the great scholar of Alexan- 
dria (born about 185, died in 254); Hippol- 
ytus of Rome (suffered martyrdom about 
235); and Cyprian of Carthage (martyr in 
258). From the writings of these men, to say 
nothing of Eusebius, Jerome, and others who 
lived later, it is clear that the Gospels of 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were uni- 
versally accepted in their day as authentic 
records of the life of Christ; that their au- 
thorship was ascribed to those whose names 
they now bear ; and that they were quoted as 
final authority in religious controversy. 

Irenaeus and Tertullian each quote or refer 
to the Gospels about four hundred times, and 
two-thirds of the New Testament is found in 
the extant works of Origen. 

Not only do the writers of this period 
mention the general esteem in which the 
Gospels were held in their day as authentic 



l6 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

records, but in support of the common opin- 
ion they appeal to sure historical evidence. 
The course of history from the Apostles 
downward must have been spread before the 
Christian Church with considerable distinct- 
ness. Hegesippus, we know, committed to 
writing the apostolic history (or memorials) 
from the crucifixion to his own time (a. d. 
170). This is now lost. The men of this 
time had in their hands much valuable liter- 
ature, which has since perished, — such as 
the writings of Melito of Sardis, Quadratus 
bishop of Athens, Ariston of Pella, Aris- 
tides a philosopher of Athens, Claudius Ap- 
polinaris, and Miltiades. 

The great school of Christian instruction 
in those days was located at Alexandria. 
Here also were the rich libraries, and in the 
shadow of these the schools of Greek phil- 
osophy, the resort of learned men from all 
parts of the world, in their restless search 
after truth. Some of these philosophers be- 
came ardent champions of the new religion. 
They had ample opportunities for examining 
its credentials ; and the fact that they ac- 
cepted it at the peril of torture and martyr- 
dom is sufficient proof of their sincerity. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. \J 

As to the text itself, Origen (a. d. 220-240) 
tells us that he had consulted " very ancient 
copies ; " and IrencTeus (a. d. 180-190), on an- 
other portion of the New Testament, appeals 
to the " good and ancient copies." 

The indirect testimony 1 of the writers al- 
ready mentioned is confirmed by that of 
others (though more fragmentary) as we go 
back towards the time of the Apostles. 

Theophilus, who became bishop of An- 
tioch about the year 169, composed a com- 
mentary on the four Gospels combined. 

The philosopher Athenagoras (a. d. 170- 
180), who undertook to write a work against 
Christianity, but became convinced during his 

1 In courts of justice, the rules of evidence are arbi- 
trarily narrowed down to that which it is supposed 
cannot work injustice under any combination of cir- 
cumstances. The principle is adopted that it is better 
for nine guilty men to escape than that one innocent 
person should suffer. The historian, however, is free 
to accept evidence of all kinds at its true value. If it 
were not so, there would be an end of history. Who 
has any doubt that Peter the Great worked at ship- 
building, or that Caesar made himself a revolutionist 
by crossing the Rubicon ? And yet our knowledge of 
these facts rests upon second-hand testimony. The 
transactions of every-day life are based almost en- 
tirely upon the same kind of evidence. 
2* B 



l8 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

investigations and composed a work in favor 
of it, was acquainted with the four Gospels. 

Apollinaris (about 165), who was versed, 
according to Eusebius, in all literature sacred 
and profane, refers to the Gospels of Matthew 
and John. 1 

Fragments of Melito of Sardis (a. d. 157— 
180) and Polycrates of Ephesus furnish col- 
lateral evidence for the fourth Gospel 

The historian Eusebius tells us that Pan- 
TiENUS (a. d. 175-190) found Matthew's Gospel 
in use in India, where it had been left by the 
Apostle Bartholomew. 

Fragments of Hegesippus (a. d. 157-180) 
contain traces of Matthew and Luke. 

*It seems unnecessary to burden these pages with 
references to chapter and section. These will be found 
in all the larger works on the subject, such as West- 
cott's History of the Canon. The works of the early 
writers themselves are accessible to the English reader 
in Clark's Ante-Nicene Library. Nor is it necessary 
in this connection to enumerate the quotations which 
they make from the Epistles and other books of the 
New Testament. 

The fact that many of these writers are silent as to 
some of the Gospels is no proof that they were unac- 
quainted with them, as has been shown by Sanday, 
in his valuable work, The Gospels in the Second Cen- 
tury, London, 1876, pp. 38, 39, 288. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. IQ 

The Clementine Homilies, about the year 
160, quote the four Gospels. 

The Muratorian Canon, about a. d. 170 
(mutilated at the beginning), after referring, 
apparently, to Mark, mentions Luke as the 
third and John as the fourth book. 1 

The Epistle of the churches of Lyons and 
Vienne, a. d. 177, quotes from Luke and from 
the Gospel and first Epistle of John. 

The Epistle to Diognetus, the date of which 
is usually placed about A. d. 150, quotes from 
Matthew and John. 

Of no small value is the testimony of 
Justin Martyr, a philosopher, who was born 
at Nicopolis, in 103, and suffered martyrdom 
at Rome, about 148, or possibly as late as 
166. So abundant are his quotations that 

1 The order in which the Gospels stand in our Bibles, 
and in nearly all manuscripts, is the logical, if not the 
chronological, order: — 1st. The Gospel for the Jew; 
2d. The Gospel for the Roman ; 3d. The Gospel for 
the Greek, as the representative of universal humanity ; 
4th. The Gospel for a more advanced stage of Chris- 
tian growth, written by our Lord's most intimate 
friend long after the other Apostles were dead, and 
disclosing higher and more spiritual conceptions of 
Christ's character and work. See Prof. Gregory t 
Why Four Gospels ? N. Y., 1876. 



20 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

quite an epitome of the Gospel history has 
been gathered from his extant writings. 1 A 
careful comparison of Old Testament quota- 
tions shows that the apostolic fathers were in 
the habit of quoting loosely from memory. 2 
Such is the case with Justin. Yet he clearly 
quotes the four Gospels, and says they were 
composed by the Apostles and their followers. 

Tatian, a. d. 150-170, a disciple of Justin, in 
his " Address to the Greeks/' quotes repeat- 
edly from the Gospel of John. He composed 
a Harmony of the four Gospels, which has 
been lost ; but from allusions by other writers, 
we know that he had our four Gospels. His 
Harmony began with the words : " In the be- 
ginning was the Word." 

Traces of John are found in the Shepherd 
of Hermas, a. d. 130-140. 

The Epistle of Barnabas, a. d. 100-125, if 
not, indeed, as early as a. d. 75, introduces a 

1 See Sanday on The Gospels in the Second Century, 
p. 91. 

2 The inconvenience of exact quotation is apparent 
when we remember that their copies were not di- 
vided into chapter and verse, nor the pages numbered. 
Some time and labor would be required to look up the 
desired passages. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 21 

quotation from Matthew, with the words, "it 
is written," — the usual formula among the 
Jews in making a citation from Scripture. It 
also has probable traces of Luke and John. 

Papias of Hierapolis, a. d. 120-140, was at 
some pains to gather from the old men of his 
time what they had heard the Apostles say of 
the teachings of Christ. This he committed 
to writing in a work in five books, under the 
title, "An Account of the Oracles of the Lord." 
This work is now lost; but Eusebius has 
preserved several extracts, in which Papias 
says, that " Matthew wrote the oracles in the 
Hebrew tongue, and every one translated them 
as he was able ; " and that Mark, the com- 
panion and secretary of Peter, wrote down 
accurately what Peter narrated of the words 
and actions of Christ, carefully avoiding any 
alteration or misrepresentation, though not 
writing his memoir in (chronological) order. 
These statements of Papias we will have oc- 
casion to take up again. Nothing is said 
as to the Gospel of John, but Eusebius tells 
us that he cited passages from the first Epis- 
tle of John. The fourth Gospel and the first 
Epistle of John, from similarity of language, 
form of thought and doctrine, are so mani- 



22 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

festly the productions of the same mind, that 
whatever establishes the authenticity of one 
has justly been regarded as evidence for the 
other also. We have evidence, however, that 
Papias was also acquainted with John's Gospel. 
In an old preamble of a manuscript of the 
Gospels in the Vatican library, it is stated 
that " the Gospel of John was composed and 
delivered to the churches by John when he 
was still living — (circulated during his life- 
time) — as Papias surnamed Hieropolitan, the 
beloved disciple of John, recounted in his five 
exoteric, that is his last five, books. " It is 
inferred that the writer of this preamble had 
the work of Papias before him. 1 

Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of 
John (martyr, a. d. 155, at an extreme old 
age), in his letter to the Philippian Christians, 
the date of which is usually placed about 116, 
quotes from Matthew and the first Epistle of 
John. 

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who was car- 
ried in chains to Rome, and there thrown to 

1 For further proof of Papias's acquaintance with 
the fourth Gospel, see Lange on John, Introduction, 
page 26 ; and Dr. Lightfoot's article in Contemporary 
Review, Oct., 1875. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 23 

wild beasts in the theatre, not later than the 
year 115, quotes from the Gospel of Matthew, 
uses language evidently derived from the 
Gospel of John, and certainly quotes the first 
Epistle of John. 

Clement of Rome, a contemporary of the 
Apostles, was born as early as A. d. 30-40, and 
died about the year 100. All the books of 
the New Testament were written in his life- 
time. In his letter to the church in Corinth, 
beside numerous quotations from other parts 
of Scripture, he uses language which corre- 
sponds with passages in Matthew, Mark, and 
Luke. 

The Gospels are thus traced back step by 
step to the time of those who were taught 
directly by the Apostles. These writers did 
not attempt to prove the genuineness of the 
Gospels, because they were not questioned. 
Hence the incidental nature of their refer- 
ences. The evidence which they furnish is 
all the more valuable, because unintentional. 
It derives additional weight from the direct- 
ness of the relation which they sustained to 
the apostolic age. Several of them were ac- 
quainted with the Apostle John, who survived 
till after the accession of Trajan, a. d. 98. 



24 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Others had opportunity, U*— Papias and Ire- 
naeus, of conversing with those who had 
heard the Apostles. Their testimony is of 
value as a statement not only of their own 
opinion, but also of that of the community 
or religious society to which they belonged, 
and for a time as far back as the memory 
of each writer would extend. 

Considering the small number of works that 
remain from the first and second centuries, we 
have an abundance of allusion to the Gospels. 
A few clear and unquestionable testimonies 
are sufficient. And it is safe to say that the 
Gospels are better supported than Greek and 
Latin classical works which have never been 
disputed. 

4. The historical value of the Gospels was 
acknowledged by the early enemies of the 
Christian faith. Take, for instance, the teach- 
ers of Gnosticism, one of the earliest and most 
widespread of these opposing movements, — 
a strange mixture of heathen mythology, 
Greek philosophy, and Scripture truth. The 
greatest antagonism existed between these 
" heretical " teachers (as they were called) and 
the Christian Church ; and if the Gospels, 
which furnished the church party with their 






THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 25 

most effectual weapons, had been put in cir- 
culation by them after the controversy arose, 
the leaders of this hostile sect would certainly 
not have accepted them from this source. 
(Archbp. Thomson 1 .) But they referred to 
them as well-known histories, and sought in 
them some support for their peculiar views. 
" So well established," says Irenaeus, " are our 
Gospels, that even teachers of error them- 
selves bear testimony to them ; even they rest 
their objections on the foundation of the Gos- 
pels." 2 

Basilides, who taught at Alexandria from 
A. d. 125 to 140, claimed to have received in- 
struction from Glaucias, the secretary of Mat- 
thew, and must therefore have been born about 
the year a. d. 60-70. He seems certainly to 
have known and used the Gospels of Mat- 
thew, Luke, and John. He wrote an exten- 
sive work on " the Gospel," which is lost. 
Heracleon, his disciple, a. d. 150-160, made 
use of the same Gospels. He wrote a com- 
mentary on John. Marcion, a. d. 140, muti- 
lated Luke's Gospel to suit his own purposes, 
and seems to have been acquainted with the 

1 Smith's Bible Dictionary, article " Gospels." 

2 Adv. Haer., III., 11, 7. 

3 



26 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

others also. Valentinus and his school, A. D. 
140-160, evidently knew and used the Gos- 
pels. Ptolem^us, a. d. 165-180, clearly re- 
fers to Matthew and John. 1 

The " Gnostic heresy " began to assume 
definite shape as early as the year 120, if 
not earlier; and as these teachers must have 
known the Gospels to have been accepted 
long before they began to use them, this car- 
ries the date of the Gospels back into the 
apostolic age. 

5. Further evidence of their early origin is 
afforded by the apocryphal literature of the 
second and third centuries. These writings 
bear much the same relation to the books 
of the New Testament that counterfeit coin 
bears to genuine. They were put in circula- 
tion by those who sought to gain currency for 
their own views under the assumed garb of 
apostolic authority ; or by those who sought, 
by fanciful inventions, to add something to 
the received history. While some of them 
contained extracts from the received Gospels, 
and remnants of early tradition, they were 

1 About the same time, Celsus, a heathen philos- 
opher, makes use of the Gospels as acknowledged 
histories. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 2J 

made up for the most part of insipid and 
childish stories, and were early rejected as 
spurious imitations of the original Gospels. 
Few of them had any circulation outside of 
the limited circle in which they had their ori- 
gin. 

Now the oldest of these apocryphal writ- 
ings can be shown to have been in existence 
as early as the year 150 A. d. ; and as the 
originals, to gain the currency and acceptance 
which the counterfeits imply, must have been 
in existence some years before, this places the 
origin of our Gospels back at least as early as 
the time when John, the last surviving Apos- 
tle, was still living (a. d. 98). 

6. Oral tradition is trustworthy within a 
reasonable lapse of time ; and if the general 
acceptance of the Gospels in the second cen- 
tury rested upon nothing more than tradition, 
this could not be accounted for if untrue. 
Sometimes a considerable period may be cov- 
ered by a few connected links of traditional 
testimony. Prof. Fisher 1 has illustrated this 
by the citation of Lord Campbell's statement 
that he had seen a person who had seen a 

1 Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity. 
New York, 187 1, page 74. 



28 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

witness of the execution of Charles I. in 1649 
— 200 years before ; and also by a reference 
to Plymouth Rock, the identity of which has 
been preserved by oral tradition for 250 years 
— though it has, within that time, been en- 
closed in a wharf, and the topography con- 
siderably changed. In 1741, when the wharf 
was about to be built, Elder Thomas Faunce, 
aged 91 years, came to visit the rock, and re- 
peated what he had heard from the first set- 
tlers. His testimony was transmitted through 
Mrs. White, who died in 18 10, aged 95 years, 
and Ephraim Spooner, who died in 181 8, aged 
83 years. 1 It is hard to see how the identity 
of the rock could have been lost, because old 
and young were existing there together in the 
same community, and any statement contrary 
to the received tradition would certainly have 
called forth an emphatic protest. 

Many persons can relate what they heard 
from their grandfathers in regard to events 
which occurred in their younger days. Very 
similar is the case with those who lived in the 
first half of the second century — one genera- 
tion after John. Justin, Quadratus, Aristides, 

1 Fisher : Supernatural Origin of Christianity, page 
74- 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 29 

Hernias, and many others who helped to 
shape opinion in this period, must have had 
opportunities of conversing with those who 
had heard the Apostles. Polycarp was the 
disciple of John, and Irenaeus, in his youth, 
had listened to the instruction of Polycarp. 
He had also, for a time, been co-pastor with 
Pothinus, who was born about the year 88, 
and whose memory, therefore, must have ex- 
tended back to the year 100. John's old age 
was spent in Asia Minor, where personal rec- 
ollections of his teaching must have survived 
for many years. And here too Polycrates 
was born about the year 125, of a family 
which had furnished seven bishops to the 
church. (Fisher.) It is hard to see how 
these men, on the threshold of the apostolic 
age, could be mistaken in regard to the apos- 
tolic origin of books so well known and 
widely circulated. In the case of minor books 
of the New Testament, which at first circu- 
lated slowly, and did not, for some time, be- 
come generally known, there might be occa- 
sional hesitation or mistake. But all the 
evidence goes to show that the four Gospels, 
the Acts, the Epistles of Paul, the first Epis- 
tle of John, and the first Epistle of Peter, were 



30 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

accepted as undisputed books from the begin- 
ning. 

In addition to all this, the churches, as 
Justin tells us, were accustomed to hear the 
writings of the Apostles (with the Prophets) 
read in their assemblies on the first day of 
each week. As the worship of the church 
was copied from that of the synagogue, there 
is every reason to believe that this practice 
had come down from the earliest times. And 
the tradition as to the authorship and identity 
of their sacred books would thus be kept 
fresh in the memory of Christian people. 

The men of that day were not all persons 
of such unquestioning credulity as some would 
have us believe. Many of them were skilled 
in Greek philosophy and learning before they 
embraced Christianity, — men of inquiring and 
discriminating habit of mind. Their caution 
in accepting what claimed to be apostolic 
writings is evident from their rejection of 
rival Gospels which bore the names of Apos- 
tles ; and also from the fact that it was only 
after mature deliberation that they accepted 
some of the minor (and for this reason less 
known) books of the New Testament. 

7. But the matter of tradition has another 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 3I 

bearing, viz., that if the Gospels were com- 
posed at a time later than has been usually 
claimed, they still were written early enough 
to be truly historical, since even in this case 
they would have a basis of recent tradition. 

The Christian Church was well fitted for 
transmitting unchanged all essential articles 
of her belief, 1 — because 

(1.) It was a corporate body — an organized 
society, in which old and young were exist- 
ing side by side, furnishing a continuous un- 
broken stream of traditional teaching from the 
apostolic age to later times. 

(2.) The traditionary education of the Jew- 
ish nation had reached a high degree of per- 
fection. Long-continued habit had prepared 
them for orally transmitting the most impor- 
tant instruction without change. 2 

1 See Row on The Supernatural in the New Testa- 
ment. London, 1875, PP- 481-492. 

2 Writing in regard to Dr. Schliemann's discoveries, 
and the tradition which Pausanias recorded as pre- 
served in his time at Mycenae, M. D. Conway says, 
in one of his public letters, "He [Schliemann] knew 
enough of the superstitious fidelity with which many 
an event has been transmitted orally from father to 
son, in German villages, through centuries, to know 
that the human mind will preserve a fact as long as 
a rock its fossil." 



32 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

(3.) The new religion, besides, was not so 
much the adherence to certain doctrines as 
it was devotion to a Leader — allegiance to a 
Person. Would they not fondly cherish the 
memory of his gracious words and mighty 
deeds ? Isolated facts of history, in which 
they had no special personal interest, might 
soon be lost, but how could those things 
perish which were their very life ! 

(4.) Nor is this all. These Christian people 
felt it to be their mission to convert the whole 
world to their faith. How could they do this 
but by recounting to others what they knew 
of Christ — his life and teaching? How else 
persuade the Jews that in Him the Messianic 
prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled? 

Under all these circumstances, how could 
any sudden or radical change in the church's 
belief be introduced? Would not anything 
new be recognized as new ? l If these Gos- 
pels (supposing them to be productions of a 
later date) presented a view different from 
that preserved by the church, or by any part 
of it, why no word of protest when they were 
made public ? or why no word of surprise 
that they had so long escaped notice ? 

1 Fisher : SufiemaL Origin of Christianity , page j6. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 33 

An extract from the epistle of Irenaeus to 
Florinus, 1 whom he sought to reclaim from 
heresy, may here be given, as throwing some 
light on the care exercised in these matters. 

" I can tell even the spot in which the 
blessed Polycarp sat and conversed .... 
and the conversations which he held with the 
multitude ; and how he related his familiar 
intercourse with John and the rest who had 
seen the Lord, and how he rehearsed their 
sayings, and what things they were which he 
had heard from them with regard to the Lord 
and his miracles and teaching. All these 
things Polycarp related in harmony with the 
writings, as having received them from the 
eye-witnesses of the Word of life. These 
sayings, then, was I in the habit of eagerly 
hearing, through the mercy given me by God, 
storing them up, not on paper, but in my 
heart." 

Irenaeus says in another place, 2 " and Poly- 
carp, who was not only instructed by Apostles, 
and had intercourse with many who had seen 

1 Preserved by Eusebius : Hist. Eccl., V.; 20. 

2 Adv. Haer., III. ; 3. These translations are from 
Dr. Donaldson on The Apostolical Fathers, London, 

1874. 

C 



34 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Christ, but was also appointed for Asia, by 
Apostles, a bishop in the church that is in 

Smyrna always taught these things, 

which also he learned from the Apostles, 
which also he gave to the church, and which 
alone are true. To these doctrines testimony 
is also borne by all the churches throughout 
Asia." 

Even as late as the time of Clement of 
Alexandria and Tertullian (a. d. 190-210) 
tradition could be confidently appealed to. 1 
The former speaks of his teachers, one in 
Greece, one in Magna Graecia, one in Syria, 
one in Egypt, one in Assyria, one in Palestine, 
to whom the doctrine of the Apostles had been 
handed down from father to son. Tertullian 
boldly claims on his side, the tradition of the 
apostolic churches, and in one passage, by 
a rhetorical figure, sends his readers to the 
churches of Corinth, Philippi, etc., for au- 
thentic copies of Paul's Epistles. 

The Christian Church, as has been pointed 
out, had the best facilities for preserving a 
correct traditional account of its Founder 
and had the strongest inducements to do so. 

1 See Sanday on The Gospels in the Second Century. 
London, 1876, p. 327. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 35 

But the church was not dependent upon oral 
tradition alone. Surely, enterprising men 
there would be among the first disciples 
who would commit to writing some account 
of Christ's parables, and the stirring events 
of his life, for the benefit of those who were 
to come after. This antecedent probability 
of written documents rises to certainty when 
we read the opening sentence of the third 
Gospel, where we are told that there were 
viany (uninspired) narratives in circulation be- 
fore Luke wrote his more complete history. 

Even if the first three Gospels had been 
composed as late as 90-115 a. d. (w T hich is 
the latest date that can be assigned by un- 
believing criticism), the writers, we conclude, 
were still within reach of trustworthy oral and 
written tradition. And though a few errors in 
the details might, in this case, have crept into 
the traditional account, still, it is certain that 
the main facts could not have been lost 
or covered up by fictitious inventions. Ex- 
tended discourses would be harder to preserve 
orally than the connecting narrative of events. 
Now the internal structure of the discourses 
in the first three Gospels shows that they have 
not suffered materially in this way. Critical 



$6 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

scholars who would be suspected of no bias 
in favor of Christianity, believe that in these 
three Gospels we have the veritable sayings 
of Jesus. 1 If the discourses have survived, 
much more then may we believe that the con- 
necting narrative portion of the history has 
remained essentially unchanged. 2 

Such a low historical value as this is not to 
be placed on the Gospels by any means, as we 
have seen ; but if it were, they would still be 
sufficiently trustworthy for the purposes of 
our argument. This and the preceding sec- 

1 " And whatever else may be taken away from us 
by rational criticism, Christ is still left, an unique 
figure, not more unlike all his precursors than all 
his followers, even those who had the direct benefit 
of his teaching. Who among his disciples, or among 
the proselytes, was capable of inventing the sayings 
ascribed to Jesus, or of imagining the life and charac- 
ter revealed in the Gospel ? Certainly not the fisher- 
men of Galilee ; as certainly not St. Paul, whose char- 
acter and idiosyncracies were of a totally different 
sort ; still less the early Christian writers, in whom 
nothing is more evident than that the good which 
was in them was all derived, as they all profess that 
it was derived, from the higher source." John Stuart 
Mill : Three Essays on Religion. 

2 On the whole subject of tradition, see Row on The 
Supernatural in the New Testa?7ient, pp. 481-492. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 37 

tion are meant to show (reversing the order) 
(1) that the early church had the best facilities 
for preserving a correct traditional account of 
its Founder ; and if the Gospels were not 
contemporary records, they still were written 
early enough to have preserved the main facts 
of the life of Jesus and his most important 
sayings unchanged : (2) that the churches in 
the second century could not be mistaken in 
regard to the apostolic origin of the Gospels, 
and therefore their testimony on this point is 
to be relied on. 

8. In all parts of the Roman world from 
Arabia to Gaul, the testimony of antiquity 
was the same. This would not have been the 
case, if tradition had been introducing new ele- 
ments from time to time. The current views 
in regard to Jesus and the Gospels would 
have been continually changing, and would 
have become different in widely separated 
parts of the world. Now the old Latin ver- 
sion in North Africa (a. d. 150-160), the 
Syriac version in the extreme East (a. d. 
150-175), and the statements of writers in 
Asia Minor, Italy, Gaul, Carthage, Egypt, and 
Syria show that the popular belief in regard 
to the Gospels was settled and uniform. 
4 



38 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Means of intercourse in those days were lim- 
ited ; there could be no concerted action, as 
no general council had been held ; there were 
no public mails ; and the progress of opinion 
was comparatively slow. It is evident, there- 
fore, that the uniformity of opinion had long 
been established. 

As already mentioned, the Apostle John 
lived long after the other Apostles were dead, 
and as late as the year 98. He thus forms 
a connecting link between the apostolic age, 
properly speaking, and the second century, 
when literature becomes more abundant. 
Some twenty-five years of his old age he 
spent in Ephesus and the adjoining region 1 . 
During this time many public and private 
Christians of Asia Minor must have had fre- 
quent communication with him, and received 
from him accurate information in regard to 
those things which lay at the foundation of 
their most precious hopes. So marked and 
permanent was his influence on this circle of 
believers, that he has been spoken of as the 



1 This rests upon the statements of Polycrates, Apol- 
lonius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Eusebius, 
Jerome, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 39 

founder of a school. 1 If therefore the tradi- 
tional account of Jesus and the Gospels in 
other parts of the world had not been cor- 
rect, we would find a difference here in Asia 
Minor, where John's influence was most felt. 
But it is found the same here as elsewhere. 

9. But this is not all. The sudden origin 
and rapid spread of Christianity must be ac- 
counted for. As a matter of history, nothing 
of the kind was known prior to the year 25 
A. D. Before the year 40, it was in vigorous 
existence and gradually extending. The suc- 
cess of the movement was accomplished in 
the face of great obstacles and bitter oppo- 
sition. Refined heathenism was supported by 
learning, wealth, political power, social influ- 
ence, superstition, and, above all, the natural 
indifference of the human heart to that which 
imposes restraint and self-denial. Those who 
espoused the new religion were subjected to 
cruel torture and imprisonment; they were 
beheaded or burned at the stake ; they were 
skinned alive or made to fight with wild 
beasts in the theatre ! Yet in the midst of 

1 See Dr. Lightfoot's article in Contemporary Review, 
Feb., 1876. 



40 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

all this persecution the Christian religion 
grew and gathered strength, until, at the 
end of two and a half centuries, it ascended 
Caesar's throne and ruled the world. Such 
zeal, such devotion, such patient endurance, 
such willingness to die rather than prove 
false, such peaceful martyrdom, the world had 
not seen before. There is no nobler chapter 
in history. Now what started this move- 
ment ? What was the cause of this faith, this 
enthusiasm, this self-sacrifice ? It could only 
have been inspired by some such personage 
as we find in the Gospels, — one who was 
not only good and great, but who was also 
believed to be supernatural. 1 

10. The theory of the late composition of 
the Gospels has been advanced to account 
for the miraculous in the life of Christ, which 
is alleged to have been the result of imper- 
fectly transmitted tradition. Such a change 
in the traditional account could be only a very 
gradual growth ; and this would, of course, 
require considerable time. If therefore the 
chief of these supernatural occurrences, or 

1 Blauvett's articles in Scribner's Monthly, and Row 
on The Supernatural in the New Testament. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 41 

any one of them, be shown, from sources 
outside of the Gospels, to have been gen- 
erally believed while the Apostles were liv- 
ing, this theory falls to the ground. 

We turn first to the Epistles of Paul. 
The books of the New Testament, be it re- 
membered, were distinct productions, and at 
first were circulated as separate volumes. It 
is only for the sake of convenience that they 
are now bound together. This should be dis- 
tinctly borne in mind, if zve would understand 
the bearing of these separate books on each 
other. 

The Epistles of Paul are among the best 
authenticated writings of any age. They 
were sent forth under his own name, and 
have been read and quoted as authority in 
every century since his day. The objections 
which are now urged against some of them 
seem so trivial as scarcely to deserve serious 
consideration. For instance : because there 
is much of abstract reasoning in the Epistle 
to the Romans, and because special promi- 
nence is given, in the Epistle to the Galatians, 
to the conflict between the Jewish and Gen- 
tile elements in the Christian Church, there- 
fore the Epistles to the Thessalonians are of 



42 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

doubtful authorship, because nothing of the 
same kind is found in them ! Is Paul not 
to be allowed the privilege, like others, of 
adapting his letters to the different circum- 
stances of those to whom he writes ? Because 
Leibnitz is known as a writer on philosophy, 
are we to discard a letter bearing his signa- 
ture, merely because it is taken up with ques- 
tions of state or topics of the time ? If the 
structure of Paul's Pastoral Epistles (i Tim., 
2 Tim., Titus) presents a greater contrast with 
his early Epistles, it is not more than might 
be looked for in one of his versatility, and 
surely not more than is found in the works 
of many a modern writer. If we admit the 
arbitrary and artificial rules of criticism which 
some would apply to the books of the New 
Testament, we could, by the same rules, dis- 
prove any fact of history. Mere theories and 
assumptions are of no weight in the face of 
direct and positive evidence. No one thinks 
of questioning the works of Horace or Cicero; 
and if these are received as genuine, so must 
the Epistles of the great Apostle be received, 
for they rest on the same kind of evidence, 
and as much of it. 

If, however, we confine our attention to 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 43 

those of the Epistles of Paul which unbe- 
lieving' critics accept as genuine, it will be 
enough for our present purpose. We have 
left, then, four at least, 1 Romans, I Corinth., 
2 Corinth., Galatians. From these we learn 
that the Apostles and all the adherents of 
the new religion firmly believed that Jesus 
had risen from the dead ; that this belief had 
prevailed from the beginning, and was the 
very foundation on which the church was 
built. (Rom. i. 4; 1 Cor. xv. 4-8.) 

Paul was able not only to recount the ap- 
pearances of Christ after his resurrection to 
Peter and James, to the other Apostles and 
to himself, but could confidently appeal to 
more than 250 witnesses then living (about 
the year 56); and this he could do in the 
presence of a party in the church who were 
hostile to him, and would not be slow to 
expose him if he were not believed to be 
correct. We might go further and say that 
this belief could not have gained such a hold 
on the minds of the disciples unless there was 

1 Renan acknowledges seven, viz., Romans, 1 Cor., 
2 Cor., Gal., Phil., 1 Thes.,2 Thes., as surely genuine, 
and Col. and Philemon as probably genuine — nine 
in all. 



44 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

some foundation for it; but this will be con- 
sidered in another place. It is enough for the 
present to observe that this was the univer- 
sal faith of the church from the beginning, a 
faith for which they were willing to suffer 
the loss of all things — even life itself. The 
testimony of Paul is of special value on these 
points for the reason that he was thoroughly 
acquainted with the movement almost from 
its very inception, and his adherence was 
rendered reluctantly and only on the most 
overwhelming conviction. 

From the same sources we also learn that 
Paul, whose sincerity cannot be questioned, 
claimed for himself the power of working 
miracles, and acknowledged the same gift in 
others. (2 Cor. xii. 12; Rom. xv. 18, 19; Gal. 
iii. 5 ; I Cor. xii. 8-10.) Gifts of healing, of 
prophecy, of speaking in unknown languages, 
etc., were matters of common observation and 
belief. And if these belonged to the mem- 
bers, much more must they have been ac- 
corded to Him who was regarded as the Di- 
vine Head of the church. 1 The Epistles of 

1 See Row on The Supernatural in the New Testa- 
?nent, pp. 408-418, and Sanday on The Gospels in the 
Second Century, p. 1 1 . 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 45 

Paul, from beginning to end, imply the gen- 
eral belief in the supernatural character of 
Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. 

But these are not all. The First Epistle 
of Peter (supported by the Second Epistle 
of Peter, by Clement of Rome, A. d. 95 ; Poly- 
carp, a. d. 1 16; and Papias, a. d 120-140), the 
Apocalypse of John (supported by Papias 
and Justin Martyr), and the Epistle to the 
Hebrews (written while the temple was still 
standing, — Heb. xiii. 10, — and Timothy still 
alive, xiii. 23, and quoted by Clement of 
Rome), are accepted by sceptical critics as 
authentic documents of the apostolic age. 
And they bear like testimony to the super- 
natural character of Jesus, and especially his 
resurrection, as universally and devoutly ac- 
cepted by the primitive church. This belief 
could not, therefore, have been the accumu- 
lated growth of several generations; and the 
theory which is based on this false assump 
tion is worthless. 

11. Between the Epistles of Paul and the 
Book of Acts there are many undesigned 
coincidences, such as would be unaccountable 
if the last named were a forgery of the second 



4.6 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

century. 1 The numerous geographical and his- 
torical allusions in this book are strikingly- 
corroborated by Greek and Latin classical au- 
thors. It was accepted by the early church, 
as is shown by the use made of it by writers 
in the second century, and by the fact that it 
has a place in the list of undisputed books and 
in the ancient manuscripts and versions. 

That a work covering such an important 
part of history (the development of the 
Christian Church from Jerusalem, the Jewish 
capital, to Rome, the political metropolis of 
the world) should be written in the second 
century, for the purpose of reconciling the 
hostile Pauline and Petrine parties, 2 (a ground- 
less assumption,) without making a single quo- 
tation from the Epistles of Paul, is next to 
a moral impossibility. If Paul must be hon- 
ored in order to conciliate his followers, what 
better material could be used than is found in 
his own Epistles ? To what unreasonable shifts 
we must be driven when we reject the obvious 
facts of history ! 

The author of The Acts traces Paul's life 

1 See Paley's Horce Panlince. 

2 For a complete refutation of this theory, see Fisher, 
Supernatural Origin of Christianity, Essay IV. 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 47 

with much detail up to the time of his impris- 
onment at Rome, and then abruptly closes the 
history without making any reference to his 
death. This is evidence that the book was 
completed and given to the world while Paul 
was still living. 

And if the Book of Acts is authentic, so is 
the Third Gospel. They are certainly the 
productions of the same author, as is shown 
by the use in both books of many Greek 
words and expressions which are used by no 
other writer. Some of these peculiarities are 
very striking, and the evidence which they fur- 
nish is unmistakable. These two books thus 
mutually support each other. And again, as 
there was a strong disposition to fix on some 
great name for the authorship of books that 
were circulating anonymously, 1 the uniform 
tradition of early Christendom ascribing the 
authorship of these two highly important 
works to one so obscure and otherwise unknown, 
cannot be accounted for, if untrue. 

x The Gospels, like all the other historical books 
of Scripture, were anonymous. Their present titles, 
though correct, were not prefixed by the writers, but 
by copyists and others, to distinguish them, and for 
convenience of reference. 



48 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The same result is reached by a compar- 
ison of several passages of the New Testa- 
ment. 

" Forasmuch as many have taken in hand 
to set forth in order a declaration of those 
things which are most surely believed among 
us, even as they delivered them unto us, which 
from the beginning were eye-witnesses, and 
ministers of the word ; it seemed good to me 
also, having had perfect understanding of all 
things from the very first, to write unto thee 
in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou 
mightest know the certainty of those things, 
wherein thou hast been instructed." Luke 

i. 1-4. 

" The former treatise have I made, O The- 
ophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and 
teach/' Acts i. 1. 

" Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, 
greet you." Col. iv. 14. 

" There salute thee Epaphras, my fellow- 
prisoner in Christ Jesus; Marcus, Aristar- 
chus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow-laborers." 
Philemon, verses 23 and 24. 

" Only Luke is with me." 2 Tim. iv. 1 1. 

These passages, in connection with Acts 
xvi. 10, and others in which the writer uses 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 49 

the pronouns "we" or "us," 1 show that the 
third Gospel and the Acts were written by 
the same person, and point to Luke, the com- 
panion of Paul, as the author. 2 

The Book of Acts was evidently composed, 
or at least completed, during Paul's two years' 
imprisonment at Rome, A. d. 61-63, in the 
leisure that was thus afforded to Luke, his 
companion ; and Luke's Gospel probably dur- 
ing Paul's former imprisonment at Caesarea, 
A. d. 58-60. In his introduction (Luke i. 
1-4) he tells us that his narrative is based, 
more or less directly, upon the observation 
of eye-witnesses, and, as we fairly infer, that 
his ample material is worked up with great 

Compared with Acts xv. 40; xvi. 29; xvii. 1, 14; 
xx. 4, 5 ; showing that the first personal pronoun 
does not apply to Silas or Timothy. 

2 The four introductory verses of Luke's Gospel are 
written in his own native Greek style. So is the last 
half of the Acts, in which he gives the result of his 
own personal observation ; while the intermediate 
portions of both narratives have a strong Hebraic 
coloring, showing that his knowledge of the Gospel 
and the events recorded in the first half of the Acts, 
came to him from Jewish sources. This is another 
confirmation of Luke's authorship. — Godet. 
5 D 



50 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

care, Here then we have a contemporaneous 
document of the highest historical value. 

12. The authorship of the third Gospel 
being satisfactorily determined, let us exam- 
ine at more length the testimony of Papias, 
already alluded to, in favor of Mark's Gos- 
pel. In one of the extracts which remain 
from his work, he tells us, in substance, on 
the authority of John the presbyter, that 
Mark, the companion and secretary of Peter, 
wrote down accurately what Peter narrated 
of the words and actions of Christ, carefully 
avoiding any alteration or misrepresentation, 
though not writing his memoir in (chrono- 
logical) order. 

Can this evidence for Mark's Gospel be 
set aside by unsupported conjectures ? If 
ours is not the same " Mark," what became 
of the original ? Could one be withdrawn 
from before the public and another substi- 
tuted, and no trace of the change be left ? 
And what motive could induce such a change ? 
(Fisher.) If we were to affirm that the his- 
tory of Thucydides was suppressed and that 
the work now bearing his name is spurious, 
what would be thought of such an idea? 
(Tregelles : Hist. Evidences.) 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 51 

The ground of the objection is the state- 
ment of Papias's informant that Mark did not 
write his history in chronological order; 
whereas, it is found that Mark's Gospel fol- 
lows the order of time as closely as the 
others, if not more so. But it should be 
borne in mind that the statement to the 
contrary is only the opinion of a man who 
lays no claim to infallibility. If, as is proba- 
ble, he belonged to the school of the Apostle 
John, his familiarity with the fourth Gospel 
may have led him to infer that Mark's narra- 
tive in comparison with this, was not so 
strictly chronological. 

The friendship between Peter and Mark 
is corroborated by a sentence dropped by 
another v/riter apparently without any design. 
When Peter was liberated from prison, he bent 
his steps, Luke tells us, to the house of Mary, 
the mother of John, whose surname was Mark 
(Acts xii. 12). Irenaeus, Clement of Alexan- 
dria, Tertullian, Eusebius, and Jerome also 
tell us that Mark was the secretary of Peter. 
(See also I Peter v. 13.) 

The testimony of Papias is confirmed by 
the internal structure of the book itself. In 
those scenes of which Peter was an eye- 



52 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

witness, we find a fulness of detail which 
accords with the statement that the Gospel 
of Mark is based mainly upon the personal 
recollections of Peter. And to his credit be 
it said, that while some things which reflect 
honor on him are here omitted, the things 
of an opposite character are faithfully nar- 
rated without a word of palliation. 

13. Through Eusebius we also have the 
statement of Papias that " Matthew wrote 
the oracles in the Hebrew (Aramaic) tongue, 
and every one translated them as he was 
able. ,, There seems little ground for any 
difference of opinion as to what was the 
original language of Matthew's Gospel. All 
^"he early writers, who say anything on the 
subject, tell us that it was written in Hebrew ; 
and several of these were instructed by those 
who were taught by the Apostles. Nothing 
would be more natural than that a Gospel 
written by Matthew for his countrymen should 
be written in their own language, and after- 
wards be translated into Greek, the world- 
language, by Matthew himself, or some other 
competent authority. Josephus, we know, 
wrote his history first in Hebrew and after- 
wards translated it into Greek, for a wider 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 53 

circle of readers. The Greek has survived 
and the Hebrew been lost. It would not 
be foreign to the state of things which ex- 
isted in the primitive church, if one person 
should be inspired to write a Gospel for one 
class of readers, and another person be in- 
spired to translate or recast it for another 
class. (1 Cor. xiv. 26, 27.) Or, if earlier docu- 
ments (Luke i. 1) were made use of in the 
composition of it, this would be no dispar- 
agement to its inspiration, any more than in 
the case of the Books of Kings and Chroni- 
cles, which were compiled from other works, 
such as " The Book of Gad the Seer,'' " The 
Book of the Acts of Solomon," etc., 1 and were 
certainly recognized as inspired books by our 
Lord and his Apostles. 2 And this would ac- 

1 See Smith's Diet, of the Bible, articles " Kings," 
" Chronicles." 

2 Take an illustration from the Old Testament. The 
first copy of Jeremiah's prophecies was destroyed by 
the angry king. (Jer. xxxvi.) Afterwards, at the 
Lord's command, the book was again written, with 
the addition of "many like words." Both copies 
were inspired, yet one was an enlargement of the 
other. As a further illustration, it may be mentioned 
that Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress continued to grow on 
his hands after the first edition. 

5* 



54 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

count for some peculiarities of construction 
in this Gospel, notably the fact that the writer 
makes his own quotations of the Old Testa- 
ment directly from the Hebrew text, while in 
repeating a quotation made by some one else, 
whom he represents as speaking, it is almost 
invariably from the Septuagint version. 

Some think that Matthew's work only in- 
cluded the extended discourses. If this were 
so, could not this have been translated and 
enlarged 2 into a more complete history by 
one of those many men who were the ve- 
hicles of inspiration, — whose names are lost 
to fame ? (Acts xx. 23 ; 1 Cor. xiv.) 

Whatever may be the fact in regard to the 
exact manner in which this Gospel was com- 
posed, the evidence, external and internal, goes 
to show that it was in circulation, in its present 
Greek form, before the destruction of Jeru- 
salem in the year 70. (See the next chapter.) 
Papias, a Greek, and probably unacquainted 
with Hebrew, mentions the necessity of every 
one translating Matthew's Hebrew Gospel as 
something already past (the aorist tense), 
which seems to imply that his Gospel was 
then in circulation in a language better un- 
derstood. (So Meyer and Westcott.) Irenaeus 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 55 

and others who make the same statement in 
regard to the Hebrew original, at the same 
time treat the Greek text as the authentic 
work of the Apostle. 1 

The general acceptance of this Gospel im- 
mediately after the time of the Apostles can 
only be satisfactorily accounted for on the 
ground that it was handed down with apos- 
tolic sanction. It has, therefore, in its present 
Greek form, at least the force of an authorized 
version. It presents a similarity of style and 
a unity of plan throughout such as belong 
to an original composition or a faithful trans- 
lation. As the Hebrew is no longer extant, 
the present Greek text may be accepted by 
us without hesitation as the authentic text. 
To us it is now practically the original. It 
has always borne the name of Matthew ; and 
the surest indications as to date point to the 
year 60-65. To this conclusion rationalistic 
criticism itself has at length returned as the 
result of its own independent investigations. 2 

The authorship of the fourth Gospel will 

1 Westcott's Introduction to the Study of the Gospels. 
London, 1872, pp. 223-225. 

2 Godet's Studies on the New Testament. London, 
1876, p. 22. 



$6 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

more properly be considered in another 
place. 

14. A word may here be necessary on the 
subject of textual criticism as applied to the 
New Testament, in order (1) to indicate the 
method by which it is shown that the origi- 
nal text has been preserved without material 
alteration ; and (2) to present another argu- 
ment for the early composition of the Gos- 
pels. 

The books of the New Testament, and all an- 
cient writings which had to be copied by hand, 
suffered many slight verbal changes, in the 
course of centuries, through the carelessness 
of copyists, or their well meant but culpable 
efforts to improve the wording, now and then, 
by substituting a smoother form of expres- 
sion for one less familiar, or by the insertion 
of explanatory words. 

The whole number of various readings 
which may be gathered from the numerous 
manuscripts of the New Testament, is, of 
course, quite large. But most of these are 
very slight, — such as different methods of 
spelling the same word, change in the order 
of the words, alterations of tense, number, 
or case. Many of these make no difference 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 57 

in the meaning, and would not appear in a 
translation. In some cases, however, the al- 
teration is of more importance. But even 
these are not such as to affect any essential 
fact or doctrine of Christianity. If we were 
shut up to the text of the most imperfect 
copy in existence, no matter either of faith 
or duty would be imperilled. 1 The important 
truth remains to be stated, that from the very 
ample material at hand, scholars have been 
able to arrive with certainty at the true read- 
ing in all but comparatively few cases. And 
in these exceptional cases it is hoped a solu- 
tion may soon be arrived at, from the addi- 
tional light which continued investigation may 
furnish. 

1 " The worst manuscript extant would not pervert 
one article of our faith, or destroy one moral precept." 
— Dr. T. H. Home. 

" No one doctrine of religion is changect not one 
precept is taken away, not one important fact is altered, 
by the whole of the various readings collectively 
taken." — Moses Stuart. 

"The fact should be recognized, that we have the 
means of presenting the text of the Greek New Testa- 
ment in a purer form than is attainable in the case of 
any ancient Greek or Latin author whose writings have 
come down to us." — Rev. Ezra Abbot, D.D., LL.D. ; 
letter to Rev. E. IV. Rice, Cambridge, 21 May, 1878. 



58 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

The material for the correction of the text 
may be briefly stated as follows: (i) Greek 
manuscripts to the number of more than 
1600, ranging in date from the fourth to the 
fifteenth century. Some of these contain the 
entire New Testament ; some only a single 
book ; while others are mere fragments, 
chiefly valuable as sample pages of sumptu- 
ous copies which have perished. (2) The 
early versions, to wit, two Latin, four Syriac, 
the Coptic (Lower Egypt), Sahidic (Upper 
Egypt), Gothic, Armenian, Ethiopic (Abys- 
sinia). These, of course, represent the still 
older Greek copies from which they were 
translated, ranging in date from the first 
to the sixth century. (3) Quotations by 
early writers. All of the New Testament, 
except a very few verses, could be recovered 
from the writings of the first three centuries, 
two-thirds of it being found in the extant 
works of Origen alone. 1 

Now, so far as relates to the Gospels, Mr. 
Sanday 2 has shown elaborately that in the 

*An excellent outline of New Testament criticism 
is presented in The Words of the New Testament, 
altered by transmission and ascertained by criticism. 
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh. 

2 The Gospels in the Second Century . 



THE GOSPELS AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 59 

second century — even as early as the time 
of Justin Martyr, (a. d. 146) — there were 
such variations in the text as could only have 
arisen in the lapse of considerable time. And 
thus, by another line of argument, the date 
of the Gospels is carried back into the first 
century. To those familiar with the subject 
of textual criticism, Mr. Sanday's argument 
is one of great force. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

IN moral elevation and spiritual enlighten- 
ment, the Gospels and other New Testa- 
ment books are immeasurably in advance of 
all the other writings of the age in which 
they appeared. Compare the best works of 
the ancient philosophers and poets, and even 
the uninspired Christian fathers. We are 
sensible of having passed into another, at- 
mosphere when we leave the writings of the 
Apostles for those of the next age. 

2. The four Gospels are the work of as 
many different men, 1 written in different parts 

1 Their independence of each other is shown by 
their marked differences ; for example, between the 
discourses recorded by John and those by the other 
three ; between the genealogies in Luke and Matthew. 
Matthew makes forty three direct citations, in his own 
person, from the Old Testament ; Luke nineteen ; 
Mark but one. Mark omits one whole year of Christ's 
ministry. His Gospel, though the shortest, has more 

60 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 6l 

of the world, in some measure with different 
designs, and for distinct classes of readers. 
Yet they all picture the same Jesus. His 
character is the same in all. And this does 
not follow from any categorical statement 
of his virtues. The Evangelists do not tell 
us in so many words that he was gentle and 
brave and wise. These things are to be in- 
ferred from what he says and does. 

So with Peter. In all the Gospel narratives 
we have the same character presented — with 
its strange combination of strength and weak- 
ness ; frank, impulsive, outspoken, bold — yet 
rash and sometimes timid. 

That four independent histories 1 should 
harmonize in this way, is inexplicable on 

Hebraic forms and coloring than all the others com- 
bined. They each have striking peculiarities in the 
use of Greek words and expressions. The similarity 
of parallel passages in the first three Gospels probably 
arises from the familiarity of the writers with the oral 
Gospel which formed the basis of apostolic teaching. 
It is doubtful whether they had seen each other's Gos- 
pels. 

1 It is scarcely proper to speak of the Gospels as 
Biographies. Westcott suggests that they are not 
strictly histories of the life of Christ, but histories 
of man's redemption. 
6 



62 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

any other supposition than that they are each 
a faithful record of facts. 

3. These writers have recorded their own 
blunders and weaknesses and slowness to 
understand the true nature of Christ's mis- 
sion. Would partisan fanatics have done so ? 
They have given us simple, straightforward 
narrations of facts, without a particle of 
national prejudice, without a word of com- 
ment or eulogy, — all ideas of self seemingly 
lost in the contemplation of the character 
before them. Could forgers have done this ? 

4. The four narratives supplement each 
other. An obscure passage or context in 
one Gospel is sometimes cleared up by the 
mention of one or two additional particulars 
in another. In one Gospel we may have a 
certain utterance or discourse, while it may 
be only when we turn to another of the Gos- 
pels that we ascertain what was the occurrence 
that called it forth. The fact that these four 
histories supplement each other must be taken 
in connection with the other fact that they 
are entirely independent. 

5. The Gospels abound in minute refer- 
ences to times and places and persons. The 
domestic life and topography of Galilee are 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 63 

vividly before us. 1 The fragmentary allusions 
to traits of character (for example, in Herod, 
Annas, and Pilate) are those which are given 
with more detail by Jewish, Roman, or Greek 
authors. Had the Gospels been forgeries of 
the second century, the attempt at such mi- 
nute circumstantiality would surely have laid 
them open to detection. 

6. There are many undesigned coincidences. 
Take a few examples. It is natural to sup- 
pose that the Apostle John would cherish a 
fond recollection of his first acquaintance with 
Jesus; and those striking words of the Bap- 
tist, " Behold the Lamb of God," must have 
made a lasting impression on his mind. Now 
we find that John calls Jesus a Lamb more 
than twenty times in his writings (see es- 
pecially the Apocalypse) ; and he is the only 
New Testament writer who uses this title, 
unless we except Peter in one instance. 

Surrounding objects (for example, the fields 
white for the harvest) often furnished Jesus 
the illustrations for his public teaching. The 

1 Row on The Supernat. in the New Testament. 
Even in modern times, Renan finds Palestine, with 
its climate, soil, customs, and topography, " a fifth 
Gospel." 



64 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

mention of a nobleman travelling into a far 
country to receive for himself a kingdom 
and to return would be unintelligible to the 
disciples, had it not been that Archelaus and 
Antipas had both journeyed to Rome for this 
purpose. And we find, on examination, that 
it was just after Christ's departure from Jericho 
that he addresses this parable to the disciples. 
From sources outside of the Gospels we learn 
that the palace built by Archelaus was the 
most conspicuous and attractive object in 
the town. This of course suggested the 
parable. How natural these unsuspected co- 
incidences if the Gospel is true history ! How 
unaccountable if it is fiction ! * 

The first three Evangelists mention that 
when the soldiers and officers came to arrest 
Jesus, one of his disciples drew a sword and 
struck a servant of the high-priest ; but they 
withhold the disciple's name. It might have 
caused him trouble to have this publicly 
mentioned while the parties were living. But 
John, who writes after they were dead, tells 
us that it was Peter. 

Minute coincidences of this kind, which do 
not appear on the surface, but are brought out 

1 Farrar : Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 188, note. 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 65 

only by searching scrutiny, are marks of his- 
torical truthfulness, because they are clearly 
undesigned. These incidental confirmations are 
abundant. 

7. The picture of Christ's childhood, which 
we have in the Gospels, is natural and per- 
fect. Little is told us, it is true, of his child- 
hood and youth ; but what we have forms a 
fitting introduction to the life of his maturer 
years. How different from the silly fancies 
in which the apocryphal gospels have arrayed 
the childhood of Jesus. They ascribe a mul- 
titude of miracles to him in his boyhood 1 — 
mere aimless displays of power. These child- 
ish and almost blasphemous productions show 
what our Gospels would have been if they had 
been written in the second century. 2 

8. The Evangelists do not ascribe a single 
miracle to John the Baptist. (John x. 41, 42.) 
"This should be noted as a most powerful 
argument of the Gospel truthfulness. If, as 
the schools of modern rationalists argue, the 

^ohn tells us that the marriage at Cana was the 
occasion of the first miracle. 

2 See Bushnell on The Character of Jesus, pp. 15-18, 
N. Y., 1867 ; and Farrar's Life of Christ, vol. i., pp. 13 
and 59. 

6* E 



66 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

miracles be mere myths woven into a circle 
of imaginative legends devised to glorify the 
Founder of Christianity, why was no miracle 
attributed to St. John ? Not certainly from 
any deficient sense of his greatness, nor from 
any disinclination to accept miraculous evi- 
dence. Surely, if it were so easy and so 
natural, as has been assumed, to weave a gar- 
land of myth and miracle round the brow of a 
great teacher, John was conspicuously worthy 
of such an honor. Why then ? Because * John 
did no miracle,' and because the Evangelists 
speak the words of soberness and truth." 1 

9. After the circulation of Paul's Epistles, 
" Christ " became the common name of our 
Saviour; while in the Gospels we find his 
habitual designation is " Jesus " (the name by 
which his friends and followers addressed 
him); " Christ" or "the Christ" (i e. the 
Messiah) being rather his official title. Does 
not this point to an early composition of these 
memoirs ? 

10. Christ's prophecies of the destruction 
of Jerusalem and the end of the world fur- 
nish important evidence. That these are not 
fictitious inventions suggested by the events 

x Farrar: Life of Christ, vol. i., p. 114. 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 67 

themselves, is shown by their structure and 
by several disconnected circumstances. 

(1.) Of the fifty verses which make up the 
series of prophecies as recorded in Matthew, 
only four give a description of the scenes of 
bloodshed and desolation, and this only in 
the most general terms, while much the 
greater number are occupied with that which 
the disciples needed most to know, — the signs 
or premonitions of those unprecedented ca- 
lamities, together with admonitions to watch- 
fulness and duty. Surely the proportion would 
have been different if the would-be prophecy 
had been written after the events. The writer 
would naturally have pictured the scenes of 
carnage and destruction with more distinct- 
ness and detail. 1 

(2.) The subjects of the prophecy are so 
interwoven as to convey the impression that 
the writer himself understood that the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, the second coming of 
Christ, and the end of the world were to oc- 
cur in immediate connection with each other, 
and within the lifetime of persons then living. 2 

1 Barrows : Companion to the Bible. Am. Tr. Society. 

2 Destruction of Jerusalem and the temple foretold, 
Matt. xxiv. 1-28. End of the world, verses 29-31. 



68 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

This is so apparently the case that Gibbon 
and others have made it the object of their 
satire. Very well then: we have here the best 
evidence that the Gospel of Matthew, in its 
present form, was committed to writing before 
the destruction of Jerusalem. If it had been 
written afterwards by a forger, it is fair to sup- 
pose that he would have inserted some clause 
to explain the apparent discrepancy. 1 But there 
stands the bald statement : " This generation 
shall not pass away until all these things be 
fulfilled." 2 Would a writer record a fabricated 
prophecy in this shape, without a modifying ex- 
pression, sixty years after the words were said 
to have been spoken — the men of that genera- 
tion dead ; Jerusalem for twenty years in ruins ; 
and the end of the world not yet come ? 

" Immediately after the tribulation of those days the 
sun shall be darkened," "the Son of Man coming in 
the clouds of heaven. 1 ' 

1 Fisher : Supernat. Origin of Christia?iity \ p. 170. 
The generic method of interpretation — by which is 

meant that a given prophecy may have several similar 
fulfilments — offers a sufficient explanation. That is, 
this prophecy as a whole was to be fulfilled, 1st, in 
the destruction of Jerusalem ; 2d, in the end of the 
world. 

2 Matt. xxiv. 34. As to the meaning of " genea," 
see Alexander on Mark, p. 362. 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 69 

(3.) There was a wide-spread belief on the 
part of primitive Christians that the second 
advent of Christ and the end of the world were 
to occur in their day. 

(4.) If, as many interpreters believe, the 
parenthetic clause, " let him that readeth 
understand," (Matt. xxiv. 15), are not the 
words of Jesus, but are inserted by the histo- 
rian to point out the signal for precipitate 
flight, it is quite intelligible if written before 
the event, but has no meaning if written after- 
wards. It of course implies something to be 
read, and refers to those who would read this 
Gospel. But if they are the words of Jesus, 
they refer to the reader of Daniel's prophecy. 

(5.) More than a million Jews perished at 
the siege of Jerusalem, 1 — but no Christians. 
The historian Eusebius tells us that they fled 
to the little town of Pella among the moun- 
tains on the east of Jordan, and so escaped 
the unparalleled horrors of that siege. Was 
it because they heeded the warning recorded 
in Matt. xxiv. 16, "then let them that are in 
Judea flee into the mountains " ? 2 

1 See Josephus. His Jewish War is a striking com- 
mentary on the words of our Lord. 

2 Tradition says it was because of a vision of the 



70 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

11. The Hellenistic dialect in which the 
Gospels are written, and the manifest Judaic 
training of the writers, is in accordance with 
the received view as to their origin. 

12. John's Gospel, the last written of the 
four, has unjustly been the object of attack on 
account of the marked difference between it 
and the other three. These differences can be 
accounted for, and are themselves proof of 
genuineness. For, if a forgery of the second 
century, why should it have been so differ- 
ently constructed ? What motive would a 
forger have for leaving the beaten track, and 
introducing new features, which would cause 
his work to be suspected ? And how could 
a composition so different secure acceptance 
unless known beyond doubt to be the work 
of an Apostle ? 

Though John dwells on that part of our 
Lord's ministry which was spent in Judea, he 
clearly implies the Galilean ministry. (John 
vii. 3, 4.) On the other hand, the first three 
Evangelists, who dwell on that part of our 
Lord's ministry which was spent in Galilee, 
as clearly imply his Judean ministry. ("O 

Apostle John. But this solution would be equally 
fatal to the views of antisupernaturalists. 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 71 

Jerusalem, Jerusalem .... how often would 
I have gathered thy children," etc. Matt, 
xxiii. 37 ; Luke xiii. 34.) John's Gospel is 
in a measure supplementary, and therefore he 
omits the sermon on the mount, the tempta- 
tion, the transfiguration, etc., and gives much 
that the other Evangelists omit. 

If the discourses of Jesus as recorded by 
John are higher and more spiritual, this is be- 
cause he was fitted by his temperament and 
his more familiar friendship to gain a truer 
insight into the higher spiritual nature of 
Jesus, and consequently better able to grasp 
and to transmit his more elevated discourses. 
Yet the other Evangelists are not without 
some detached sayings in the same strain. 
(For example, Matt. xi. 25-27.) Very similar 
is the case of Socrates and his instructions 
as represented by his different disciples. 1 

(1.) The external support for John's Gos- 
pel, as we have already seen, is ample — fully 
as much so as for the other Gospels. 

(2.) The air of naturalness and candor 
throughout the book, 2 — so obviously written 
"ad narrandum, and not ad probandum;" 

Wisher: Supernat. Origin, p. 112. 
2 See especially chapters ix. and xi. 



J2 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

the mention of minute and incidental particu- 
lars, 1 such as we look for only from an eye- 
witness, and which would multiply the chances 
of detection in a forgery; the introduction of 
subordinate clauses which add little or noth- 
ing of value to the information, but seem to 
be thrown in only because they are the vivid 
reminiscences of the historian; 2 the allusion 
to occurrences which the writer had not 
narrated, but which, it is taken for granted, 
are already familiar to the reader; 3 the mod- 
est reticence of the writer in regard to him- 
self; the omission, by this Evangelist alone, 
of the Baptist's title, — it not being necessary 
to distinguish him from the other John, who 

1 For example, the time of day. See i. 35 ; xiii. 21- 
25; xviii. 15-27; xix. 26, 27, 34, 35; xx. 3-9,' 24-29. 

2 E. g. xiv. 31. Jesus had been discoursing to the 
disciples during the last supper; the clause, "Arise, 
let us go hence," is thrown into the account, and the 
discourse continues. We can imagine the disciples, 
or part of them, rising at the call, and then tarrying a 
moment till the address is finished. How natural the 
picture ! Could it possibly be a fiction ? See hi. 23 ; v. 
2; viii. 1 ; xii. 21 ; xviii. 10. 

3 E. g. That John had been cast into prison, iii. 24 ; 
the anointing by Mary is assumed to be known, xi. 2,' 
though not recorded by John till xii. 3. See i. 45, 46 \ 
vi. 67. 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 73 

is kept in the back ground ; the explanation 
of things familiar to every Jew 1 — showing 
that the book was written for a class of readers 
outside of Palestine, yet by one acquainted 
with Judea and Jewish ideas; the preserva- 
tion of facts recorded by no other histo- 
rian; 2 and the narration of facts seemingly 
injurious to the faith which the author seeks 
to propagate ; 3 are all marks of historical 
truthfulness. 4 

(3.) The fourth Gospel claims to be the 
production of an eye-witness (i. 14; xix. 35) ; 5 
and if not written by the Apostle John, it is 
the work of a forger, who adroitly seeks 
to convey that impression. The disciple 
whom Jesus loved and who leaned on his 
breast at supper (xxi. 20) 6 is declared to be 
the author (xxi. 24). A forger would have 
been more apt, as in the apocryphal Gospels, 
to place the name conspicuously in the fore- 

1 v. 2 ; vi. 4. " The Passover, a feast of the Jews." 

2 xviii. 13, 19-24. 

3 John vii. 5. 

* Farrar's Life of Christ, voL i., p. 141. 

5 Compared with the 1st Ep. of John i. 1-3 and iv. 
14. 

6 John xiii. 23 ; xix. 26 ; xx. 2-8 ; xxi. 7. 

7 



74 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

ground, instead of leaving it to be inferred 
from a careful comparison of passages. 

(4.) The fourth Gospel is the diadem of 
Christian literature. Its heavenly spirit is 
unrivalled and incommunicable. For eighteen 
centuries it has been the comfort of aspiring 
hearts. The purest natures have been lifted 
up by it, but have not outgrown it. Now we 
know something of the men of the second 
century. Which of them was the transcen- 
dent genius which such a masterpiece of 
deception would imply? What rare intel- 
lectual gifts combined with the highest moral 
conceptions ! If a forgery, we have this anom- 
aly, — intentional and deliberate fraud resulting 
in M the fairest picture of moral grandeur" ex- 
tant in any language. 

(5.) In chapter xxi., verse 24, we have these 
words "and we know that his testimony is 
true." The author had been writing in the 
third person, but here at the close is a sud- 
den change to the first person. This evi- 
dently was added by some other hand as a 
confirmation of John's truthfulness. Accord- 
ing to early accounts, John delivered his Gos- 
pel to the Church of Ephesus first, having 
sustained peculiar relations to this church for 



THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 75 

many years. It has been conjectured, with a 
high degree of probability, that this clause 
was the authentication from the elders of the 
Church of Ephesus, under whose direction 
this Gospel was copied to be sent to other 
churches. It is certain that they are not the 
words of John ; and by whomsoever written it 
is very early testimony to the genuineness of 
the fourth Gospel. 

(6.) The acceptance of this Gospel by 
Christian antiquity as the genuine production 
of the Apostle John, from the time of his 
contemporaries downwards ; the acknowledg- 
ment of it by the early enemies of the Chris- 
tian faith ; the clear internal evidence ; and 
the great improbabilities involved in the hy- 
pothesis of forgery, combine to afford a de- 
gree of certainty which has commanded the 
assent of some even of the most sceptical en- 
quirers. 

We have now gone over the chief items of 
proof relating to the genuineness of the four 
Gospels. As will be seen, the evidence is cu- 
mulative ; and to most minds, we believe, it 
will be decisive. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 

HAVING ascertained that the Gospels are 
trustworthy records, we are prepared to 
consider the character therein pictured. But 
who can do justice to such a theme ? We 
may gaze and wonder, but who will attempt 
an adequate presentation of such a person- 
ality ? In moral grandeur, self-sacrifice, origi- 
nality, and commanding influence over the 
hearts of men, it stands without a parallel. 1 
It transcends all other characters in history. 
Men of every age and condition, learned and 
unlearned, have looked up to it as their 
brightest example. Painters, poets, philoso- 
phers, and moralists have found in it their 
loftiest ideal. The greatest minds have 
bowed in humble adoration. No one feels 
like attempting an analysis of this character ; 
but a few obvious facts may be stated. 

1 Farrar : The Witness of History to Christ, pp. 79-88. 

76 ' 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 7J 

(i.) Jesus was a good man. As, for the 
sake of argument, we have been treating the 
Gospels as truthful records merely, without 
saying anything as to whether they are in- 
spired, so for the present, it will be borne in 
mind, we speak of Jesus merely as a historical 
personage, without affirming anything as to 
his supernatural character. Those who reject 
all belief in the supernatural, and who en- 
deavor to explain away all that is miraculous 
in the life of Jesus, will freely concede all that 
is here said as to his character. On this point 
there will be no dispute. 

In the days of his earthly life those who 
came in contact with him were impressed 
with his transparent honesty and sincerity of 
purpose, his perfect purity and innocence. 
They felt his moral superiority. And such is 
the irresistible impression now as we read the 
simple story of his life. 

The Jewish rulers, it is true, rejected him, 
but their hostility can be accounted for. The 
Saviour's unsparing denunciation of their 
formality and hypocrisy, his failure to satisfy 
their worldly Messianic expectations, and his 
contempt for their highly esteemed oral tradi- 
tions, were to their minds proof positive that 
7* 



78 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

he was not the promised Messiah. The truth 
could not penetrate the triple mail of preju- 
dice, pride, and worldliness in which they 
had encased themselves. 

In spite of the powerful opposition of the 
ruling class, the common people heard him 
gladly. Unbiased minds were free to speak 
their admiration. Even those who had no 
sympathy with his teaching were convinced 
of his purity and honesty. Pilate said he 
found no fault in him. Pilate's wife regarded 
him as a just man. Judas declared that he 
himself had betrayed innocent blood. The 
thief on the cross said that Jesus had done 
nothing amiss. The centurion who superin- 
tended his crucifixion, overpowered by what 
he saw and heard during those six hours of ag- 
ony, exclaimed, " Truly this man was the Son 
of God." And those who had witnessed his 
death smote on their breasts and returned. 

(2.) The outward conditions of the life of 
Jesus were most unfavorable. His life, up 
to the age of thirty years, was spent in ob- 
scurity, — in a retired village not celebrated 
for a high degree of morality or culture, but 
rather the reverse. His associates were not 
the educated and refined. His life was one 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 79 

of poverty and toil, that of a carpenter work- 
ing every day for the supply of bodily wants, 
with little opportunity for intellectual im- 
provement. He had none but the commonest 
education. He had no influential friends. He 
died at the early age of thirty-three years, and 
had been before the public but three years. 
Yet, under these most unfavorable circum- 
stances, he developed the most perfect, the 
most original, and the most influential char- 
acter in history. 1 

(3.) He lived in an age of superstition. All 
men felt its power. The most enlightened 
philosophers were unable to free themselves 
entirely from the dreadful incubus. The 
Jewish teachers were no exception. And what 
was worse, they had in addition laid upon 
themselves the yoke of the oral law. They 
were in abject slavery to the tradition of the 
elders, which, with its ten thousand burden- 
some requirements, resulted in intolerable 
bondage to conscientious minds, while in 
those less earnest the result was formalism 
and hypocrisy. From all this Jesus was free, 
and taught others to be free also. 

1 See The Christ of History, by John Young, pp. 
31-49. New York, 1856. 



80 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

(4.) The men of his nation were narrow 
and superficial. They were letter-worship- 
ing, hair-splitting, morbid-minded, one-sided 
casuists. The grasp of his mind was broad 
and generous and untrammeled. 

(5.) Without instructors, he displayed a 
more thorough insight into the Hebrew 
scriptures than any of the Jewish teachers. 
On several occasions, without warning, they 
approached him with some of the most intri- 
cate and difficult questions that had occupied 
the rival schools in which was concentrated 
the wisdom of the nation. Immediately — 
asking no time for reflection — comes his 
clear, discriminating reply, differerft from the 
solution of both schools, showing where each 
was right and each was wrong, 1 and this with 
a convincing power from which there could 
be no appeal. 

(6.) The Messianic expectations of the Jews 
were in keeping with the slavish literalness 
of all their interpretation of Scripture. They 
expected the Messiah to be a great worldly 
prince, like Caesar, who would first conquer 
and then rule the world ; Jerusalem to be his 
capital, and the Jews still to retain their pre- 

1 See Farrar's Life of Christ, vol. ii., pp. 152, 155. 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 8l 

eminence. Jesus told the people that he was 
the Messiah ; but that his kingdom was not 
of this world. There was to be no outward 
pomp or splendor, but he was to reign in the 
hearts of men forever. His views of the Mes- 
siahship were not derived from any of the 
men of his time. They were entirely orig- 
inal. 1 

(7.) His originality is further seen in the 
fact that while religious reformers in general 
are anxious to secure the co-operation of the 
wealthy, the refined, and the influential, Jesus 
espoused the cause of the poor and the un- 
learned — a thing before that time unheard of. 
Antiquity took little account of the poor. 
They were scarcely regarded a part of so- 
ciety. If in the present day we are waking 
up to the discovery that the uplifting of the 
masses is the highest interest of society, it is 
a proof that the life of Jesus has at length be- 
gun to penetrate society and public history. 
It should also be noted that in identifying 
himself with the common people Jesus did 
not become a party leader, nor engender a 
party feeling, nor were the more cultivated 

1 Young : The Christ of History, pp. 57-66. 
F 



82 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

classes of society repelled by his so doing", 
but rather attracted. 1 

(8.) No man of his time, either Jew or 
heathen, rose to such exalted and correct 
views of God and humanity. And not only 
was he immeasurably in advance of his age, 
but his work as the Founder of a new religion 
was most remarkable, as already intimated, in 
view of his early death (at the age of thirty- 
three years) and the shortness of his public life 
(three years). Think of it ! an obscure carpen- 
ter in a country village, his life one of toil and 
poverty, without education, friends, orr social 
influence, in the short period of three years, 
setting on foot a movement which has done 
more to comfort human hearts, purify society, 
promote civilization, and shape the history of 
the world than any other agency ! 

(9.) But we have not done with the charac- 
ter of Jesus. We find in him the harmoni- 
ous combination of qualities which are seldom 
united in the same person. Men aim at moral 
perfection in heart and life, and the result is 
apt to be asceticism, or some other form of 
one-sidedness. They cultivate charity, and 

1 Bushnell on The Character of Jesus, pp. 74-82. 
New York, 1867. 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 83 

before they are aware, their charity has de- 
generated into an indifference to truth, which 
is falsely styled liberalism. If they cultivate 
gentleness and tenderness, it is liable to be at 
the sacrifice of force. In these matters men 
fail. But in the character of Jesus we find 
these apparently contradictory qualities in 
harmonious perfection. The matchless purity 
of his life is not marred by a single trace 
of asceticism. He manifested the broadest 
charity, but no false liberalism ; dignity with- 
out pride or haughtiness ; firmness and deci- 
sion without being overbearing or unjust; 
gentleness and tenderness, but no lack of 
energy and force of character ; he was meek 
and lowly in heart, yet ready, when neces- 
sary, to assert his own superior claims and 
to denounce sin and hypocrisy with the stern- 
est severity ; in him the highest intelligence 
was combined with a rich emotional nature 
and perfect self-control. In a word, we find in 
Jesus every element of strength without a 
single element of weakness. 

(10.) The founders of other religions have 
made serious mistakes. Posterity has de- 
tected some imperfection in their teaching 
or their lives. A Hindoo boy does not have 



84 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

to go to school very long to learn that there 
is no mountain 128,000 miles high, as his 
sacred books declare, — nor a sea of honey, 
nor one of sour milk. The Buddhist and 
Mohammedan ideals of society are disfigured 
by gross errors and misconceptions. But in 
all the progress of eighteen centuries, enlight- 
ened Christendom has not outgrown the 
teaching or the example of Jesus. King- 
doms rise and fall. Systems of philosophy 
decay and are forgotten. But Christianity 
never was stronger than it is to-day. 

Here we may properly adduce the testi- 
mony of one of the best judges of human 
nature whom the world has ever seen. The 
Zmperor Napoleon I. when conversing, as 
was his habit, about the great men of the 
ancient world, and comparing himself with 
them, turned, it is said, to Count Montholon, 
with the inquiry : " Can you tell me who Jesus 
Christ was ? " The question was declined, and 
Napoleon proceeded : " Well, then, I will tell 
you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I 
myself have founded great empires : but upon 
what do these creations of our genius depend? 
Upon force. Jesus, alone, founded his empire 
upon love; and to this very day millions 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 85 

would die for Him. ... I think I understand 
something of human nature ; and I tell you 
all these were men ; and I am a man : none 
else is like Him ! Jesus Christ was more 
than man. I have inspired multitudes with 
an enthusiastic devotion such that they would 
have died for me : but to do this it was neces- 
sary that I should be visibly present with the 
electric influence of my looks, of my words, 
of my voice. When I saw men and spoke 
to them I lighted up the flame of self-devo- 
tion in their hearts. . . . Christ, alone, has 
succeeded in so raising the mind of man 
towards the Unseen, that it becomes insensi- 
ble to the barriers of time and space. Across 
a chasm of eighteen hundred years Jesus 
Christ makes a demand which is beyond all 
others difficult to satisfy: He asks for that which 
a philosopher may often seek in vain at the 
hands of his friend, or a father of his children, 
or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his 
brother: He asks for the human heart; He 
will have it entirely to Himself; He demands 
it unconditionally ; and forthwith His demand 
is granted. Wonderful ! In defiance of time 
and space, the soul of man, with all its powers 
and faculties, becomes an annexation to the 
8 



86 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe 
in Him experience that remarkable super- 
natural love towards Him. This phenome- 
non is unaccountable ; it is altogether beyond 
the scope of man's creative power. Time, 
the great destroyer, is powerless to extin- 
guish this sacred flame : time can neither ex- 
haust its strength nor put a limit to its range. 
This it is which strikes me most. I have 
often thought of it. This it is which proves 
to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus 
Christ. ,, Liddon's Bampton Lectures, 1866, p. 
222. 

Rousseau says : " If all were perfect Chris- 
tians, individuals would do their duty; the 
people would be obedient to the laws; the 
magistrates incorrupt; and there would be 
neither vanity nor luxury in such a state. . . . 
I will confess that the majesty of the Scrip 
tures strikes me with admiration, as the pu- 
rity of the Gospel has its influence on my 
heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers 
with all their pomp of diction : how con- 
temptible are they compared with the Scrip- 
tures ! Is it possible that a book at once so 
simple and sublime should be merely the 
work of man ? Is it possible that the sacred 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 87 

personage whose name it records should be 
himself a mere man ? What sweetness, what 
purity in his manner ! What sublimity in his 
maxims ! What profound wisdom in his dis- 
courses ! Where is the man, where the phi- 
losopher, who could so live and so die with- 
out weakness and without ostentation ? If the 
life and death of Socrates were those of a 
sage, the life and death of Jesus were those 
of a God." 

(11.) In connection with the character 
of Jesus, we must not fail to notice the as- 
tounding pretensions which he made — preten- 
sions which, if not sustained, would have 
turned back the tide of popular favor, and set 
him down as an imbecile or a madman. Im- 
agine any man, even the wisest and best, ap- 
pearing nowadays before an audience and 
proclaiming, " I am perfectly sinless ; I am 
faultless ; repentance is no part of my reli- 
gious life ; you feel honored to be called the 
children of Abraham, but I claim to have ex- 
isted before Abraham ; you have the highest 
regard for Moses, the great lawgiver of Israel, 
but I claim an authority over your hearts and 
lives superior to that of Moses ; you point 
with pride to the splendor of Solomon's reign 



88 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

as the golden age of your history, but behold 
a greater than Solomon is here. ,, " Nay, 
more, your eternal salvation depends upon 
your reception of me." " He that believeth 
on me shall be saved. ,, " Son, thy sins be 
forgiven thee." " Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! 
woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty 
works, which were done in you, had been 
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have re- 
pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my 
words shall not pass away." 

Such were the pretensions which Jesus 
made and sustained. There was something in 
his bearing, in his looks, in his tones and ges- 
tures, in his character, which convinced people 
that he had a right to speak as he did. They 
felt that they were not in the presence of an 
ordinary teacher. When he began his public 
life, the first thing connected with his teach- 
ing that impressed the people was his air of 
authority, such as the scribes did not possess; 
and near the close of his life the reluctant ad- 
mission was wrung from his enemies, " never 
man spake like this man." There was some- 
thing in the personality of Jesus which justi- 
fied his unparalleled pretensions, and this is 



THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 89 

the reason the people did not turn from him 
in disgust. 1 

(\2.) It is difficult for a writer to delineate 
character correctly. Yet so delicately are the 
lines drawn in this picture which we have in 
the Gospels, that as we read them now, we 
are not shocked with the assumptions of 
Jesus, as we certainly would be if they were 
not properly a part of the picture. And 
herein is additional evidence that the Gospels 
are each a simple recital of facts. The case 
is different with the apocryphal writings of 
later date. These show by contrast which 
are fact and which are fiction. And that such 
a character should have been invented by the 
Jewish nation in its lowest decay, and com- 
mitted to writing without a word of harsh- 
ness or censure towards opposers, or a particle 
of national prejudice, would be itself a greater 
miracle than any recorded in the Gospels. 2 

(13.) As a part of the pretensions of Jesus, 
it should be noticed that he claimed to be lay- 
ing the foundation of a kingdom that should 

1 See Bushnell on The Character of Jesus. New 
York, 1867. 

2 Archbp. Thomson : article on " Gospels," in Diet. 
of Bible. 

8* 



90 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

extend to all ages and all branches of the hu- 
man race. Yet he manifested no uneasiness 
in regard to the final triumph of his doctrines, 
though men turned away from his teaching 
and refused to believe. 1 In those dark closing 
hours of his life, when apparently all was lost, 
he asserts himself the master of the situation. 
To human view his work was then a failure. 
Yet his words remind us of a commanding 
general when victory is assured. 

(14.) And again: though the kingdom 
which he professed to be setting up would be 
dependent for its success on a truthful account 
of what he himself did and said, yet he made 
no earthly provision for the preservation of 
those precious teachings and facts. He wrote 
nothing himself, and was apparently indifferent 
as to whether any record of his life was kept. 

In view of all these striking features of the 
life of Jesus, are we not compelled, in all 
candor, to conclude not only that he was the 
purest, the wisest, and the best of men, but 
that he was something more than man — 
that he was a supernatural person — as he 
claimed to be ? 

This prepares us for the next step. 

1 Bushnell on The Character of Jesus. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JESUS WAS A WORKER OF MIRACLES. 

THESE miracles were witnessed by multi- 
tudes, on a number of different occasions, 
during the three years of his public life. They 
were well known and talked of by all. So 
much so that at his last Passover, when it was 
known that the Jewish rulers sought to arrest 
Jesus to put him to death, the people asked in 
astonishment : " When Messiah cometh, will 
he do more miracles than this man ? M 

They were supported by testimony which 
was rendered reluctantly, from fear of perse- 
cution, — for example, that of the father and 
mother of the blind man (John ix.). They 
were also conceded by his enemies, who did 
not pretend to deny the miracles themselves, 
but ascribed them to satanic agency. That 
they did not deny them is proof that they 
were facts beyond question. (Compare Acts 
iv. 16.) 

91 



92 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

They were for the most part miracles of 
mercy, and thus served a double purpose. 
They authenticated Christ's divine mission, 
and at the same time illustrated its beneficent 
character. 

Christ's miracles were not performed for 
display nor for the gratification of curiosity. 
They were to be taken in connection with his 
teaching. They were usually bestowed as the 
reward of faith, weak and imperfect though it 
might be. Nevertheless, if a man in need of 
healing had faith enough to believe in him 
as a worker of miracles, his physical restora- 
tion would prepare him for that higher ex- 
ercise of faith which would result in spiritual 
blessing. 1 

The miraculous runs all through the Gos- 
pel. It appears on every page. It is so in- 
terwoven with the life of Jesus that it cannot 
be separated. 2 And the necessary inference 

*See "Miracles," Diet, of Bible. 

2 It is surprising to see by what methods some have 
sought to eliminate the supernatural from the Gospels. 
If the same ingenious sophistry is to be applied to 
other narratives, the study of history may as well be 
abandoned. The absurdity of these methods has been 
illustrated by Whately in his Historical Doubts con- 
cerning Napoleon. 



JESUS WAS A WORKER OF MIRACLES. 93 

may be stated in the words of Nicodemus : 
u Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher 
come from God : for no man can do these 
miracles that thou doest, except God be with 
him." Jesus himself claimed the power of 
working miracles, and that which this power 
involved. A few extracts will illustrate this. 

When John the Baptist had been in prison 
for some time, he sent two of his disciples to 
inquire of Jesus whether he really was the 
promised Messiah. " Jesus answered and said 
unto them, Go and show John again those 
things which ye do hear and see : the blind 
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the 
dead are raised up, and the poor have the 
gospel preached to them. And blessed is 
he whosoever shall not be offended in me." 
(Matt. xi. 2-6.) 

"And behold there came a leper and wor- 
shipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou 
canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth 
his hand, and touched him, saying, I will ; be 
thou clean. And immediately his leprosy 
was cleansed. ,, (Matt. viii. 2, 3.) 

"And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, 
Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts ? for 



94 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven 
thee, or to say, Arise and walk ? but that ye 
may know that the Son of man hath power 
on earth to forgive sins (then saith he to 
the sick of the palsy), Arise, and take up 
thy bed, and go unto thine house.'' (Matt. 
ix. 4-6.) 

Now from these and other passages it is 
plain that Jesus claimed to work miracles. 
This claim must be taken in connection with 
his character. If he was a man of Unim- 
peachable honesty and truthfulness, it is cer- 
tain that he was a performer of miracles. 
For him to assert such a claim when no 
miracles had been done by him would set 
him down as a falsifier, a pretender, an im- 
postor. And for any one to deceive in mat- 
ters of personal religion is the basest form of 
deception, — because religious hopes and feel- 
ings are the most sacred of our nature, — the 
last that should be trifled with. In the case 
before us there is no middle ground. We 
must either say that Jesus was a good man — 
the best of men — and a worker of miracles, 
as he claimed, or that he was a falsifier and 
a deceiver. We are shut up to a choice 
between these two alternatives, and it is 



JESUS WAS A WORKER OF MIRACLES. 95 

not doubtful what the verdict of humanity 
will be. 1 

Before leaving the subject of miracles, one 
objection may be noticed. If we receive the 
Gospel miracles on the testimony of those 
who claim to be eye-witnesses, are we not 
to believe in modern miracles on the same 
ground ? 

Answer. — Scarcely any reflecting person 
will consider the cases parallel. In matters 
of this kind, as in other things, why should 
there not be fraudulent imitations of the good 
and the true ? The unapproachable excel- 
lence of the life of Jesus is beyond dispute. 
Is it so with the modern wonder-workers? 
Some of their pretended miracles have been 
shown to be fraudulent. 

The character of Jesus and the claim of the 
Gospel miracles to our belief cannot be sepa- 
rated. When a modern wonder-worker ap- 
pears whose miracles are supported by such 
a character, we will believe him. 

The Gospel miracles then, we believe, are 
firmly established, and they show that Jesus 
is a Teacher sent from God. 

^lauveltt: in Scribner's Magazine \ March, 1873. 



CHAPTER V. 

JESUS CHRIST AROSE FROM THE DEAD. 

IN the first place, he was really dead. Jewish 
hatred and Roman vigilance would combine 
to secure this result. The thrust of the broad- 
headed spear into his side and upward to the 
region of the heart, would destroy, as it was 
designed to do, any lingering trace of life. 1 
And, if his character for truth has been estab- 
lished, his oft-repeated declaration that he 
was to die on the cross, sets this question at 
rest. Let us consider some of the proofs of 
Christ's resurrection : 

I. The fact that Jesus rose again from the 
dead rests upon the statement of those who 
saw him after his resurrection; the testi- 
mony of truthful, sober-minded men — men 
who were not anticipating such a result, and 
therefore not to be imposed upon by their 
eager imaginations. To the declaration that 
they had seen Jesus after his resurrection 

1 Farrar : Life of Christ, vol. ii., p. 424. 

96 



JESUS AROSE FROM THE DEAD. 97 

these men firmly adhered to the end of their 
lives, though it cost them hardship and loss, 
persecution and death. Their testimony de- 
rives additional weight from the fact that at 
first they were very reluctant to accept such a 
truth. When informed by the women that 
they had seen a vision of angels, who told 
them that Jesus had arisen, their words 
seemed but idle tales. And afterwards, when 
Thomas was informed by the ten disciples 
that Jesus had appeared to them in his ab- 
sence, he declared that he would not believe 
unless he saw in the Saviour's hands the print 
of the nails, and put his hand into the spear- 
wound in his side. This very test of the 
reality of the resurrection he was called upon 
to exercise at our Lord's next appearance a 
week later. 

On at least ten different occasions Jesus 
showed himself alive after he arose, one of 
which appearances was in the presence of 
five hundred witnesses (i Cor. xv. 6). Could 
such a multitude be imposed upon at once by 
their imaginations ? And if these appearances 
were mere myths — the offspring of disor- 
dered imaginations — why did they not con- 
tinue ? 

9 G 



98 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

2. The change in the character of the 
Apostles. Before the resurrection of their 
Master they were weak, ignorant, selfish, vac- 
illating men, sharing the worldly and narrow 
expectations of the Jews generally. After it 
they were enlightened, self-sacrificing, heroic 
missionaries, bent on winning the whole world 
to the saving knowledge of Christ. Whence 
this sudden and mighty revolution in charac- 
ter, this newly acquired insight into the true 
meaning of the Old Testament, this new-born 
idea of a spiritual kingdom to embrace the 
whole human race ? These things can be 
readily accounted for in view of the facts 
of the Resurrection morning and the Day of 
Pentecost, and in no other way. 

3. The declaration of Jesus himself before 
his crucifixion. He clearly and emphatically 
announced to the disciples on several occa- 
sions that he must be killed and the third day 
rise again. These declarations must be taken 
in connection with his unimpeachable truth- 
fulness. Unless he was a deceiver, this places 
the fact of the resurrection beyond question. 

4. The Christian Sabbath — the observance 
of the first day of the week in commemora- 
tion of this event — has stood for eighteen 



JESUS AROSE FROM THE DEAD. 99 

centuries a witness to the faith of apostolic 
times. 

5. If Jesus rose not, what became of his 
body ? Was it stolen ? By whom — friends 
or foes ? If by friends, could the knowledge 
of this be kept from the Apostles ? But the 
Apostles sincerely believed that he arose, as 
Renan and other unbelieving critics freely 
admit. Was the body stolen by foes? Then 
why did they not come forward and show 
this when the Apostles so boldly and suc- 
cessfully proclaimed the resurrection in the 
streets of Jerusalem a few days later ? l 

It is with manifest embarrassment that the 
attempt has been made to explain away the 
series of facts which cluster about this event. 

6. The testimony of the Apostle Paul — the 
last in logical order — the first, however, that 
was announced to the cultured Gentile world, 
and still the first, to some minds, in convinc- 
ing power. An intense hater of Christ and 
Christianity, this gifted and highly educated 
young Pharisee bent every energy of his 
ardent nature to the extermination of the 
hated sect. Having made havoc of the church 

1 See Row on The Supernatural in the New Test, 
chap. xx. 



IOO FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

at Jerusalem, he set out with the purpose of 
doing the same at Damascus; when sud- 
denly, at mid-day, he is stopped in the way, 
by the Lord Jesus himself, who supernatu- 
rally manifests himself, and convinces the 
persecutor of his error and his folly. (Acts 
ix.) From that moment he was a changed 
man. He was convinced that he had been 
persecuting his own Redeemer. The faith, 
which before he had sought to destroy, he 
now desired to propagate. To this work he 
thenceforward devoted himself with such tact, 
enthusiasm, courage, learning, and success, as 
to become, for all time, the representative man 
of Christianity. 

If the lives of Plato and Seneca are each a 
part of history, so is the life of Paul. If 
sincerity and truth can be attributed to any 
man, surely they will not be denied to him. 
And that he believed that the Lord Jesus 
appeared to him is a fact beyond question. 
How can it be explained away? Was he 
imposed upon by legerdemain? was it an 
attack of insanity? or was he struck by light- 
ning? None of these explanations will 
bear scrutiny. His subsequent life is more 
than an answer. If a stroke of lightning, 



JESUS AROSE FROM THE DEAD. IOI 

would not those who were with him be aware 
of this ? Would not he himself remember 
the storm ? If insanity, how explain the 
three days' blindness, and the voice, which 
was also heard by his companions? He was 
not insane when shortly after he mightily 
persuaded the Jews in the synagogues, from 
the Old Testament Scriptures, that Jesus was 
indeed the Christ. The sorcerers of Ephesus 
did not think him insane when, under his 
preaching, they brought their books together 
and burned them. 

It is hard to over-estimate the value of 
Paul's testimony to the supernatural character 
of Jesus ; and it is only one of many converg- 
ing lines of evidence. 



CONCLUSION. 

THE Gospels are authenticated by many- 
converging lines of evidence external 
and internal. 

2. If they were less fully supported than 
they are, the life and character of Jesus, 
which they portray, would still be its own 
vindication ; because it could not possibly 
have been a fictitious invention of the age 
in which it appeared. 

3. If any further evidence were needed, it is 
furnished by the historical development of 
Christianity during the past eighteen hundred 
years, and its perfect adaptation to the spirit- 
ual wants of humanity; so that the stone 
which the Jewish builders rejected has now 
become the head-stone of the corner. It is 
the life of society and the strength of modern 
civilization. Could this life and teaching of 
Jesus have been an invention. of the Jewish 
mind in its lowest decay ? 

102 



CONCLUSION. I03 

4. The conclusion then is irresistible that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Saviour 
of the world. 

5. If this is so, the supernatural govern- 
ment of the world in the interest of truth 
and righteousness, and the interposition of 
miraculous agency at important junctures in 
the history of the race, are nothing to stum- 
ble our faith. 

6. Jesus being a Divine Teacher, the Scrip- 
tures of the Old Testament, which he recog- 
nized as the inspired word of God, are to be 
received as such by us. And if the organic 
law of the Old dispensation, so to speak, was 
the result of Divine inspiration, much more 
may we believe the same of the New Testa- 
ment writings. This strong presumption in 
favor of the inspiration of the books of the 
New Testament rises to certainty when we 
read our Lord's promises to send the Holy 
Spirit to guide the disciples into all truth. 
John xiv. 26; xvi. 13; and the claim which 
the Apostles make for their own writings. 
2 Peter iii. 16; Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 

7. God reigns in the kingdoms both of 
nature and of grace; any apparent discrep- 
ancies between science and the Bible will 



104 FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 

therefore vanish when both are rightly un- 
derstood. 

8. Immortality and eternal life are not 
dreams, but realities. 

9. Repentance, faith, and personal conse- 
cration are our duty and our highest wis- 
dom. 



INDEX. 



ABBOT, Dr. Ezra, on text of 
Greek New Testament, 57, n. 
Abyssinian MSS., New Testament, 
14, 58. 

Account of the Oracles of our Lord, 

by Papias, 21. 
Acts, Book of the, authenticity of,45. 

composition of, 49. 

iEthiopic versions ot Gospels, 14, 

53. 
Alexander, Dr., on Mark, 68. 
Alexander, Napoleon on, 84. 
Alexandria, libraries of, 16. 

school at, 16. 

Antipas, 64. 

Antiquity and the poor, 81. 

testimony of, 37. 

Apocryphal Gospels, 27, 30, 65, 73. 
Apostles of Christ, 29, 98. 
Apostolical Fathers, cited, 33, n. 
Appolonius, 38, n. 
Aramaic, Matthew and, 52. 
Archelaus, palace of, 64. 
Aristides, writings of, 16, 28. 
Ariston, writings of, 16. 
Armenian versions of Gospels, 14, 

58. 
Athenagoras, conversion of, 17. 

BARNABAS, Epistle of, 20. 
Barrow's Companion, 67. 
Bartholomew in India, 18. 
Basilides, cited, 25. 
Bible, inspiration of, 103. 

science and, 103. 

Blauveltt, cited, 40, 95. 
Book of Acts of Solomon, 53. 

Chronicles, 53. 

Gad, 53. 

-—-Kings, 53. 
Buddhist errors, 84. 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, 53. 
Bnshnell on the Character of Jesus, 
65,82, 89,90. 



/CAMPBELL, Lord, 27. 

V^ Caesar, Napoleon on, 84. 

Celsus on the Gospels, 26, n. 

Charlemagne, 84. 

Charles I., execution of, 28. 

Character of Jesus, by Bushnell, 

65, 82, 89, 90. 

Christ, Life of, by Farrar, 64, 65, 

66, 73, 80. 

of" History, by Young, 79, 81. 

See Jesus Christ. 
Christian Church, early, 31. 
Christian Sabbath, 98. 
Christianity, obstacles to, 39. 

rapid spread of, 39. 

rests upon facts, 13. 

strength of, 84. 

Cicero, authenticity of, 42. 

time of, 13. 

Claudius Appolinaris, 16, 18. 
Clement of Alexandria, 15, 34, 38, 

Clement of Rome, 45. 
Clementine Homilies, 19. 
Coincidences, undesigned, 45. 
Conclusion, 102. 
Consecration, duty of, 104. 
Contemporary Review, 22, 39. 
Conway, M. D., 31. 
Coptic versions of Gospels, 14, 

58. 
Cyprian, testimony of, 15. 

ANIEL, prophecy of, 69. 
Donaldson on the Fathers, 33. 

EGYPTIAN versions of Gospels, 
14, 58. 
Epistles of Paul, 42. 
Epistle to the Hebrews, 45. 
Eusebius, cited, 18, 21, 33, 38, 51, 

52, 69. 
Evidence, internal, 60. 
rules of, 17, n. 

I05 



I) 



io6 



INDEX. 



FACTS, Christianity rests upon, 
13- 
Faith, duty of, 104. 
Farrar, Life of Christ by, 64, 65, 

66, 73, 76, 80. 

Witness of History to Christ,76. 

Faunce, Elder, 28. 

Fisher, Prof., Essays, cited, 27, 28, 

29, 50, 68. 
Florinus, 33. 

(^ENEA, meaning of, 68, n. 
J Gibbon on prophecy, 68. 
Gnosticism, 24. 
Godet, Studies of, 49, 55. 
Gospel in India, 18. 
Gospels, Apocryphal, 27, 30, 65, 73. 
Gospels, Authentic Historical 

Records, 13. 
Gospels, anonymous, 47. 

authentic, 24, 75, 89, 102. 

Celsus on, 26, n. 

characteristics of, 62. 

composition of, 40. 

historical records, 13. 

in Second Century, 20, 34, 44, 

58, 59- 

independent of each other, 60. 

language of, 70. 

--moral elevation of, 60. 

MSS. of, 14. 

order of, 19. 

testimonies to, 17, 19. 

Gothic versions of Gospels, 14, 58. 
Greek MSS. of New Testament, 14, 

58. 

various readings of, 57. 

Gregory, Prof., cited, 19, n. 

HEATHENISM, strength of, 39. 
Hebrew, Matthew's Gospel 
in, 52. 

Hebrews, Epistle to the, 45. 

Hegesippus, History of, 16, 18. 

Hellenistic dialect, 70. 

Heracleon on John, 25. 

Hernias, writings of, 29. 

Hindoo fables, 83. 

Hippolytus, testimony of, 15. 

Historical Doubts concerning Na- 
poleon, 92, n. 

Historical Evidences of Tregelles, 

Historical Records, Gospels 

are, 13. 
History based on evidence, 17, n. 



Holy Spirit, promise of, 103. 
Horace, authenticity of, 42. 
Horse Paulinae, 46. 
Home, T. H., cited, 57, n. 

TNSPIRATIONofScriptures,io3. 
1 Internal Evidence, 60. 
Introduction to the Study of the 

Gospels, 55. 
Irenseus, cited, 15, 17, 24, 25, 29, 

33, 38, 5*j 54- 

JEREMIAH, Book of, 53, n. 
I Jerome, cited, 38. 
^ Jerusalem, destruction of, 67, 69. 
Jesus Christ, character of, 40, 44, 

61, 65, 76, 102. 

childhood of, 65, 78. 

discourses of, 71. 

miracles of, 44, 65,91. 

name of, 66. 

Napoleon on, 84. 

prophecies of, 66, 68. 

pretensions of, 87. 

resurrection of, 45, 96. 

Rousseau on, 86. 

second coming of, 67. 

teachings of the life of, 32. 

See Christ. 

Jesus Christ Arose from the 

Dead, 96. 
Jewish teachers, 80. 
Jewish War, 69. 
John the Baptist, 65. 
John the Evangelist, 18, 19, 20,21, 

22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 38, 69. 

First Epistle of, 21. 

Gospel of, 51, 60, 64, 65, 70, 

- 7 I t 7 2 - 

Josephus, Jewish Wars of, 52, 69. 
Justin Martyr, cited, 19, 45, 59. 

LANGE, cited, 22. 
Latin versions of Gospels, 14, 
37, 58. 
Leibnitz, 42. 

Liddon, Bampton lectures of, 86. 
Lightfoot, Dr., cited, 22, 39. 
Luke, Gospel of, 18, 25, 47, 48, 49, 

60, 64, 70, 71. 
Lyons, church of, 19. 

MANUSCRIPTS of the Gos- 
pels, 14. 

various readings of, 56, 57. 

Marc ion on Luke, 25, 



INDEX. 



I07 



. Gospel of, 21, pa, 51, 60, 64, 

Martyrdom, 40. 

;cw, Gospel of, 18, 19, 20, 21, 
22, 23, 25, 26, 52, 54, 60, 64, 67, 
68, 70. 
Mehto, writings of, 16, 18. 

1. Christ the, 32, 66, 81. 
Meyer, cited, 54. 
Mill J. S., cited, 36. 
Miltiades, writings of, 16. 
Miracles of Christ, 44, 65, 91. 

Paul, 44. 

pretended, 95. 

Montholon, Count, 84. 
Moses, S7. 

Muratorian Canon, 19. 
Mycenae, Schliemann at, 31, n. 

NAPOLEON, Historical Doubts 
concerning, 92, n. 

on Christ, 84. 

New Testament, early citations 
from, 15, 18, 19, 58. 

inspiration of, 103. 

moral elevation of, 60. 

reception of, 29, 30. 

textual criticism on, 56. 

See Row. 

Nicodemus and Christ, 93. 







LD Testament, 103. 
Origen, cited, 15, 17, 58. 



PALESTINE, Renan, 63. 
Paley, Horse Paulinas by, 46. 
Pantaenus in India, 18. 
Papias, cited, 21, 22, 24, 45, 50, 51, 

52, 54- 
Paul, character of, 99. 

Epistles of, 41, 42, 45, 46. 

Horae Paulinas, 46. 

miracles of, 44. 

party of, 46. 

testimony of, to Christ, 44, 101 . 

Pella, town of, 69. 
Peter and Mark, 21, 51. 

character of, 61, 64. 

First Epistle of, 45. 

party of, 46. 

Philippi, Polycarp and, 22. 
Philosophers, books of, 60. 

conversion of, 16, 30. 

systems of, 84. 

Pilate, testimony of, 78. 
wife of, 78. 



Plato, life of, 100. 
Plymouth Rock, 28. 
'ooks of, 60. 
Polycarp, cited, 22, 29, 33, 45. 
Polycrates, cited, 18, 29, 38. 
Poor in ancient times, 81. 
Pothinus, 29. 
Prophecies of Scripture, 66, 67, 68, 

69, 88. 
Ptolemaeus, cited, 26. 

QUADRATUS, writings of,i6, 2 8. 
Quotations, early, 20. 

READINGS, various, 56, 57. 
Religions, founders of, 83. 
Renan on Palestine, 63. 

Paul's Epistles, 43, n. 

Repentance, duty of, 104. 
Resurrection of Christ, 45, 96. 
Rousseau on Christ, 86. 
Row on the Supernatural in the 

New Testament, 31, 36, 40, 44, 

63, 99- 

SABBATH, Christian, 98. 
Sahidic versions of the Gos- 
pels, 14, 58. 

Sanday on the Gospels in the Sec- 
ond Century, 20, 34, 44, 59. 

Sceptical critics, 35, 36, 43, 55, 63, 
65, 77- 

Schliemann, Dr., at Mycenae, 31, n. 

Science and the Bible, 103. 

Scribner's Magazine, cited, 40, 95. 

Scriptures, Christ's knowledge of, 
80. 

divine origin of, 103. 

inspiration of, 103. 

Rousseau on, 86. 

Scrivener, Introduction to New 
Testament by, 14. 

Seneca, life of, 100. 

Shepherd of Hermas, 20. 

Silas, 49. 

Smith, Dr. .Dictionary of the Bible, 
14 n., 25, 53, 89,92. 

Socrates, last hours of, 71. 

Solomon, Book of Acts of, 53. 

reign of, 87. 

Spooner, Ephraim, 28. 

Stuart, Moses, 57, n. 

Studies on the New Testament, 
55- 

Supernatural in the New Testa- 
ment : see Row. 



io8 



INDEX. 



Supernatural Origin of Christianity: 

see Fisher. 
Syriac versions of the Gospels, 14, 

37, 58. 

TATIAN, testimony of, 20. 
Tertullian, 15, 34. 
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 38, n. 
Theophilus, cited, 17. 
Thief on the Cross, 78. 
Thomas, incredulity of, 97. 
Thomson, Archbishop, cited, 25, 

89. 
Three Essays on Religion, 36, n. 
Thucydides, history of, 50. 
Timothy, 49. 
Tradition, 27, 30, 31, n., 34, 35, 

69, 79. 
Tregelles, S. P., cited, 50. 



UNDESIGNED coincidences, 
45, 63, 64, 65. 

T 7ALENTINUS, cited, 26. 
V Various readings ofMSS., 56, 57. 
Vienne, church of, 19. 

WESTCOTT on the Gospels, 
54,6i. 
Whately, Archbishop, 92, n. 
White, Mrs., 28. 
Why Four Gospels? 19, n. 
Wisdom, the highest, 104. 
Witness of History to Christ, 76. 
Words of the New Testament, 58 
World, end of the, 67, 69. 

YOUNG, John, The Christ of 
History, 79, 81. 



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